The Sparrow
by xTerriblexIsxBeautifulx
Summary: If there is ever anything to know, then know this: Suzume is either very lucky, or extremely unlucky. -SasukexOC SasuxOC SasukeOC SasuOC-
1. Chapter 1

**Here is something new. I will continue Typical when I feel in the mood but now I want to try this. :)**

* * *

**Chapter One**

The class chattered excitedly to each other with anticipation; today was the day of the graduation exam. Every few minutes, another name was called, and more than a few people squirmed. "Haruno Sakura!" a man called through the door. The pink-haired girl stood at attention before nervously heading toward the classroom door.

"Good luck," muttered a sarcastic voice; it came from a brunette girl, Suzume, who sat with her snickering friends at the front of the class. Her reddish eyes belittled Sakura with a sneer.

Sakura glared. "Oh shut up, bird brain." She exited the room. Suzume's eyes narrowed slightly as she leaned back on her chair, her vicious focus set on the classroom door. She no longer paid any attention to her friends' conversation as she waited impatiently. It wasn't long before Sakura walked back into the room, a headband held tightly in her left hand and a satisfied smirk. She gave a sardonic "ha" as she passed. Everyone eyed the band anxiously, their faces reflected in the shiny new metal. A small leaf was carved into the centre, the symbol of their village; it would be a great honour to wear that emblem.

"Iwate Suzume," called the man behind the door. Suzume stood confidently as her friends wished her luck, however, a feeling of nervousness washed over her as soon as she stepped through the door. Two instructors sat behind a long wooden desk in an otherwise empty room. The dark-haired man spoke first. He was tanned with a scar across the bridge of his nose and a ninja headband tied firmly on his forehead. They called him Iruka. "Hello, Suzume. You don't have to be nervous; all you have to do is make two clones of yourself and you pass." He got right to business.

She could only manage a curt nod before quietly forming the required hand-signs. When the cloud of smoke finally cleared, there stood on either side of her... herself. Her clones smiled sweetly and waved at the instructors. "Perfect," smiled the silver-haired man named Mizuki, "Come here and get your headband. You definitely passed." Suzume nodded again, doing as she as told and hurrying out of the exam room. Her head spun; she passed!

Upon entering the classroom, Suzume's friends swarmed her, asking all at once if she passed and whether or not the test was difficult. "Everyone, calm down!" she laughed, "I passed!" With a squeal of excitement, the girls marvelled at her headband but no one was in more disbelief than Suzume herself. At last, she might get the recognition she deserved.

"Where are you going to wear it?" Mai, a petite blonde girl, asked. She was the most attractive of the group, her first concerns almost always about what she (or her luscious locks) and her friends looked like.

"I'm not sure yet. What do you think?"

"Well, there are so many options..." added Ayame, a tall girl with sleek blonde hair. She was athletic with a heavy build, yet was always able grab the attention of all the boys.

"Maybe you could put it on your head, like an actual headband. If you put it on your forehead, it'd look too weird!" said Itsuko, a girl with dark green hair in pigtails. She was Suzume's closest friend; living close by since early childhood, the two would often play together.

"I think Sakura is going to wear it like that," Suzume cut in.

There was an outburst of disgusted noises. "You definitely can't wear it like that then!"

"You're right. I agree with it looking weird on my head too! Maybe I could wear it on my leg?"

"No, that would still look weird, wouldn't it? What about your waist?"Mai suggested, explaining the term "cinching". However, before anyone could respond, she began to speak once more, You could also put it just under your chest; it'll make your breasts look fuller." Suzume blushed but followed her suggestion anyway; Mai was always right about these sorts of things.

"Eh! Suzume, you're so cute. I've only got A cups," Itsuko chimed with a pout, eliciting a flurry of giggles from everyone.

"Ah, you're wrong! You're so much cuter!" Suzume retorted honestly without thinking. Everyone laughed again, harder this time. Suzume smiled awkwardly.

* * *

Suzume awoke the next morning when her three-year-old brother, Gen, landed on her, shrieking so loud that her eardrums almost burst. "Wake up, wake up, wake up!" he cried, jumping up and down.

"Argh... Gen, get off of me!" she snarled, trying to shove him off. He smiled mischievously before he leapt from her bed and out the door, laughing all the way. She only groaned, too tired to even yell back at her little brother; yelling at him would only get her into trouble anyway The clock glared at her; 7:30 already. "Crap..." she muttered, realizing that there wasn't enough time for bathing. She sighed, the blankets falling to the floor as she finally rose out of bed. The sun illuminated the quiet room, a small morning comfort. Her room was the only room in the house that Suzume was able to relax in. It almost felt nice to wake up... almost. Dressing quickly, Suzume pulled her long brown hair up and out of her bare face. It wasn't often that she wore any make up despite urging from her friends; she always thought it would seem attention-seeking. The girl in the mirror smiled prettily enough anyway. After securing her ninja head band around her torso (blushing into the mirror, no doubt), Suzume left her room.

In the uncomfortably white kitchen, she met her father, a handsome man in his early forties with dark hair and muddy green eyes. His skin, almost as white as the counter, made Suzume flinch. "Good morning, Father," she greeted politely before continuing in silence.

After breakfast, Suzume's younger sister Hidemi, entered the kitchen. Like her father, she had jet black hair and paper white skin, but her eyes were much brighter green. "Did you have a good rest, Father?" she asked.

Their father raised his eyes from his newspaper and smiled at the young girl. "Ah, it was a good night. Feeling well, I hope?" he responded. Hidemi nodded without looking at him. "That's great. You think you might have a mission today?"

"I'm not sure. I think I'm going to try to get one but if not then I'll be home for dinner," she explained with a smile on her face. Their father nodded and began to read once more."Good morning, Sister."

Suzume stood abruptly, muttering a goodbye before exiting the house as fast as she could. She knew she's get in trouble for ignoring Hidemi but it had seemed worth it at the time. Their relationship had on the rocks since Hidemi graduated from the academy years ago. Now, although she was only ten years old, Hidemi greatly outranked Suzume in the ninja world. Jealousy was ugly.

A calm breeze blew through green leaves and brown hair. Suzume breathed it in. The lilting bird songs carried throughout the streets, putting a smile on the villagers' faces as they went about their business. She found her pace slowing to an easy stroll. Sometimes, Suzume would watch the pretty birds glide on the air, and all inhibitions would lift with them and fly away. Bird-watching brought her a peace that she thought no one could understand; the birds were the lucky ones, she thought. She couldn't help but smile along with every one else.

A jarring voice burst through the day's tranquil music. Suzume struggled to hide the annoyed twitch as she turned to face the culprit, Itsuko. Did she even know the definition of peace? The small girl ran to catch up with Suzume. From them on, they walked, chatting absent-mindedly about what was going to happen at the academy next. "I can't believe we're finally ninja. That was way too easy!" Itsuko shouted emphatically.

The comment caught Suzume's attention; she'd lost sleep over the thought that they had become full-fledged ninja by executing one simple technique. Practically the entire class had passed. It couldn't have been that easy, she thought. "Itsuko, do you think that maybe we're missing something?"

"You mean love?!" her friend exclaimed foolishly, with gaping mouth and dramatic arm motions.

Suzume actually stumbled. "That's not exactly-"

"Speak for yourself," Itsuko announced proudly, holding her head high.

"What? Did you finally confess?!" Suzume spluttered incredulously.

Itsuko laughed at the reaction. "Calm down! I confessed to Toshi on the way home after we left the academy and he accepted my feelings!" She smiled warmly, losing herself in thought.

"Wow, I'm really happy for you, Itsuko. You've worked really hard to get him to notice you." Suzume smiled at her friend, happy that she had finally achieved her goal. "Toshiro graduated too, didn't he?"

"Yes, it's great isn't it? We could become the most amazing tag team," she giggled.

"Did everyone graduate?"

"Naruto didn't," she said plainly, with a thoughtful expression.

"Really?" It was no wonder he didn't look too cheery yesterday. Suzume felt bad for him.

"Yeah, but it figures. He spends more time designing new pranks than he does studying. If he tried a little harder in school, he might have been able to make it." Itsuko frowned as she spoke, contemplating Naruto's situation. Suzume said nothing.

The two reached the academy with some time so into the classroom, they saw a blonde boy crouched on a desk in front of a boy with black hair; the blonde was Uzumaki Naruto, so-called failure and the other was Uchiha Sasuke, so-called genius; neither of them even attempted to get along with the other. Beside the desk was a large crowd of jeering girls determined to bother Naruto away from their 'prince'. Most of Suzume's friends were also in this group. Suzume and Itsuko moved closer to find out what the argument was about this time. Both boys glared intensely, the electric tension mounting... when the person sitting in the seat in front of Sasuke's leaned backward, bumping Naruto.

There was a moment of pure silence.

Sasuke and Naruto were caught in a lip-lock.

The girls' horrified expressions reflected perfectly on the boys' faces. Suzume's eyes widened considerably. She had to clap a hand to her mouth to cover her smile; Itsuko didn't even bother to stop her giggling. As if they had kissed poison, Sasuke and Naruto threw themselves apart, coughing and spitting. A heavy aura filled the room, the girls slowly advancing on poor Naruto; even he could sense their malice. "Na-ru-to..." they growled.

After the commotion, Iruka entered the room and everyone scrambled to their seats. "Okay, everyone, you're ninja now but only genin, the lowest of low..." his voice trailed off. Suzume furtively glanced at Naruto, secretly pleased to see the band on his forehead. She didn't know him well, or at all, but she knew what it was to be an underdog; she was glad it wouldn't be him this time.

Itsuko's voice brought her back to herself. "Suzu, did you hear that? We're going to be on three-man teams and one group is going to have four! Wouldn't it be awesome if it was you, me, Mai, and Ayame?" Everyone around her chattered excitedly while Iruka-sensei tried to get their attention again. Suzume tried to look as attentive as possible now; this was it.

"Okay, I'm going to be calling out the teams now. Pay attention! Team one: Higurashi Kagome, Hayashi Tatsuru, and Kobayashi Isa." They heard a high-five in the background. A few more teams were called. "Team Five: Suzushi Ayame, Shiroru Mai and Kimura Itsumi." Ayame and Mai smiled at each other; Itsuko looked disappointed. "Team Six: Minami Itsuko, Fujimoto Toshiro, and Kawaguchi Hitoshi." Her mood picked up immediately at the mention of her new sweetheart.

"Congratulations," Suzume whispered with a grin.

"Oh sorry, Suzu..." she replied apologetically. Suzume didn't say anything; she didn't want to make anybody feel bad about something they couldn't control.

"Team Seven: Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke, and Iwate Suzume."

An eruption of complaints came from across the room. "Iruka-sensei! Why does a genius like me have to be put on the same team as an idiot like him?" Naruto screamed, gesturing to Sasuke. The Uchiha ignored him.

Iruka sighed. "Be quiet, Naruto! I created the teams for balance: Sasuke had the best scores in the class while you had the worst!" The class snickered.

"Don't slow me down... dead-last," Sasuke sneered. Again, everyone snickered.

"Hey, why is Suzume on the team?" Sakura added scornfully.

"Yes, why am I on that team? I could just as easily be moved," Suzume snapped back, more at Sakura than at their instructor.

Iruka rubbed his temples. "Again, balance... In order for me to balance the teams, you two must be on the same team. Maybe then you can learn to co-operate! The same goes for you, boys." The finality in his words stopped any more arguments from anyone. Suzume refused to even look toward that side of the classroom for the rest of the team-naming; it would be a mission not to lose her head with Sakura around. Exchanging a helpless look with Itsuko, Suzume only hoped for the best.

* * *

Hour after hour, Team Seven waited for their new instructor; not even Iruka staying behind to wait with them. Suzume sat on one of the desks at the front of the room, fiddling with her fingers, attempting to stay calm. Naruto continued complaining about how late their instructor was, while only Sakura told him to be quiet repeatedly. Sasuke remained still and silent.

"Why don't you be quiet, Sakura?"

"Stay out of this, bird brain!"

Suzume scoffed but said nothing. She gave Naruto a little smile when she noticed his bemused face staring at her. It felt good to stand up to that girl for him, knowing that he would never say anything about it. Another long silence passed... Then the door slid open. They all looked up in anticipation.

Hidemi stood in the doorway. Suzume stood, surprised that her sister would appear so suddenly. "Hello, Sister. Father said that he wants you to come straight home after you're done with your team for a little talk," she explained, her gaze sweeping across the people in the room. "Hi everyone. I'm Hidemi, Suzume's younger sister. It's a pleasure to meet you all." She bowed than smiled a brilliant kitchen-white.

"Ah. Younger sister? But you have a forehead protector," Naruto noticed, pointing to Hidemi's forehead.

"Yes, I graduated from here a few years ago; I'm a jounin now." She wasn't bragging.

"Eh! That's so cool! Isn't that cool, Sakura?" He was practically bouncing. Both Sakura and Sasuke looked interested."You must be really talented to be able to do that!"

Hidemi only smiled again. "Thank you."

"Of course! My name is Uzumaki Naruto and I'm going to be your Hokage one day, so you'd better remember me!" Naruto flashed Hidemi a toothy grin and a thumbs up, earning himself a good-natured laugh.

"Is that so? Then I will remember you, definitely."

"Don't you have somewhere to be?" Suzume cut in.

"Oh yes, I almost forgot: I've got a mission so I won't be home for dinner tonight. Give the message to Father and Mother, please." Hidemi nodded toward her sister than to Naruto and the others, before taking her leave. Suzume just looked away from the door, feeling unpleasant once again.

Ever since she was little, Suzume had always wanted a sister or brother. She had always asked her parents every day to bring her someone to play with; the other children in the clan didn't play with her. It was because she was different from them, the other members. The Iwate clan had a special bloodline technique that bound them to protect the village.

A long time ago, there was a small village. Every day and every night, a demon called an 'oni' would harass and harm the villagers. Frightened of this demon, the villagers all pleaded the Gods to stop the demon and to protect them from it. In time, the Gods answered their prayers. The Gods chained the demon to three holy rock just outside the village, forcing it to promise to never again harm the villagers. To show proof of this promise, the demon imprinted on the left rock his hand.

The Iwate clan were descendants of this promise, and of this demon, which is why they all had green eyes and black hair. They were unnaturally pale, all tall and strong, and if one examined their palms, the kanji for 'promise' would seemingly be burned into their skin. Each and every Iwate was born with this seal; it was in their blood and it was the source of their power. However, Suzume did not have this mark, nor was her body the same, or her eyes, hair, strength. A child whom does not resemble her parents is supposedly the child of a demon and yet, it was not possible. Suzume was born with another seal: the fox, a demon's sworn enemy, seemingly burned to her back. The fox would undo the clan, they said. She would try to kill them all, like Uchiha Itachi did to his clan, they said.

Hidemi was the clan's prodigy, claiming the title at birth, when her mark glowed deep red and she did not cry. Initially, Suzume had been proud to have such an amazing younger sister, and had tried her best to encourage her, however, Hidemi had never been able to spend much time with other children, training extensively in solitude. When Hidemi began to consider herself superior to Suzume, their already strained relationship broke. Suzume had never been able to pick up the pieces, and eventually began to resent Hidemi.

Suzume became independent, learning to care for herself while her parents busied themselves with her siblings. She developed her own persona, and grew to be a well-liked girl with many friends outside of the clan. She always thought that she had risen above the slander and had become a better person for it; she liked to believe that the situation had matured her more than crippled her. She held tightly onto that thought.

The classroom door opened, triggering a chalk eraser to fall on to the head of a silver-haired man in a mask. Suzume's eyes widened, knowing instinctively that Naruto had just insulted their new instructor.

"My first impression is... I hate you all."

* * *

**I edited this heavily. Hopefully, it's a bit better than it was before.**

**Reviews are much appreciated!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Here is chapter two! Slow moving... but important.**

* * *

**Chapter 2**

"We'll go around to each of us. I want your name, likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams, etc," the instructor explained to Team Seven. He wore a mask to cover the lower half of his face, and a crooked band to cover his left eye; the rest of his body was covered as well. His only distinguishing feature was his tall, silver hair. Suzume wasn't sure what to make of him.

Naruto looked at him suspiciously as well. "Why don't you go first?" Sakura nodded in agreement while Suzume and Sasuke said nothing. They all sat a distance apart, their enmity clear as day.

"Okay. My name is Hatake Kakashi. My likes and dislikes aren't really your business. I have a lot of hobbies... and I don't really have any dreams."

"We didn't end up learning anything but his name..." Sakura grumbled under her breath, just loud enough for the others to hear. If Kakashi had heard what she said, he ignored it and instructed Naruto to begin.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto. My likes are cup ramen! My dislikes are waiting the three minutes for the water to boil. My hobby is tasting different kinds of ramen and my dream... My dream is to become the next Hokage and have everyone acknowledge me!" he exclaimed animatedly, his voice rising with every sentence. Suzume looked at him curiously; she had never realized he was such a passionate person. By the end of his speech, she found herself almost believing him.

Sakura went next. "My name is Haruno Sakura. My likes are... well... who I like is..." she paused for a moment, stealing an obvious glance at Sasuke. She giggled before continuing, "My hobbies are..." Another giggle. "My dream is to..." She ended up just smiling, her face pink as her hair.

"And your dislikes...?" Kakashi prodded.

"Naruto and Suzume!"

Naruto's face fell while Suzume narrowed her eyes. "Right back at you!"

Before an argument could break out, Kakashi spoke again, "You there!"

"Uchiha Sasuke. I dislike a lot of things and I don't really like anything. I don't have any hobbies. I don't want to say dream... but my ambition is... to kill a certain man." The Uchiha's hatefully gazed into the air as if he could see his target right in front of him. A shiver ran down Suzume's spine, forcing her to look away from the him. She had never heard such vindictive words before, not even from clan members, and she knew who they were for: his older brother, Itachi.

"Ah," was Kakashi's only response, as if he had expected that answer. "And you?"

"My name is Iwate Suzume. My likes are my friends, and I dislike having to leave them and go home. I also don't like mushrooms or tomatoes. My hobbies...? I read sometimes. My dream is to make my parents proud."

"Hm... interesting," he murmured, examining the team once more. "Meet at the training grounds tomorrow morning at seven for survival training."

"Survival training? But we've already done that at the academy!" Naruto shouted, standing in an outrage.

"This is different."

"How?"

The man paused for a moment, his one eye sweeping over their faces. "You'll freak out if I tell you." The silence pushed him for explanation. "You see, out of the twenty-eight students to pass the graduation exam, only a maximum of ten students can actually become genin. So there's about a 66% chance of failing this test."

"What?!" Suzume had waited for this, that shocking discovery that it really wasn't that easy. There has been no way that ninja could be picked just by performing a simple technique; there must have been something more, and this was it.

"I told you that you'd freak out."

"So what was the point of the exam?" Naruto asked in disbelief.

"That was to see who was eligible to become a ninja," Kakashi stated plainly. "So tomorrow, seven o'clock sharp; remember that. You're dismissed." For a moment, nobody moved but finally, as they all got up to leave, he spoke again. "Oh yeah, and don't eat breakfast. You might throw up." They all froze a moment more before they continued on their way.

* * *

Suzume got home not ten minutes later, coming in silently on watch for her father. "He's not home yet," a voice said suddenly. Suzume stiffened as she turned to face the speaker, her mother, a beautiful young woman with flowing black hair and cold, emerald eyes.

"Where is he?"

"He's away on a mission today, but he'll be back soon enough; then you'll be in trouble," her hollow voice replied. Suzume swallowed hard, looking everywhere but her mother's eyes. She didn't want to see what was coming for mistreating Hidemi; it hadn't gone well the last time. Her parents would not beat her any more than what was normal, but the scorn on their faces was even worse than anything physical. She turned away from her mother, running to the safety of her room.

...

She was woken from her sleepless daze by her father shouting for her. She jolted out of bed and hurried to the room in which she knew he would be waiting. Suzume immediately kneeled on the floor, her head bowed low, in preparation for her lecture. Her father stood above her, pacing slowly back and forth like a pendulum. His silence intimidated her.

"This is unacceptable, Suzume," he said in a low voice, still walking. "You deliberately disrespected your sister this morning. Hidemi is your sister, not a dog; you understand that, don't you?"

"Yes, Father." She bowed low.

"I won't tolerate that behavior any longer. I've let you off before but that stops now; you're not a child anymore. If you'd like me to treat you as an adult then you have to conduct yourself accordingly; know your place! I won't take anything less from you any longer. Hidemi has already learned this, now it's your turn. You will apologize to her tonight, understand?" He had stopped finally, directly in front of her. Distaste tainted his words.

She found it difficult to speak. "Y-yes, Father. I understand... I apologize."

Suzume stayed as still as her father, not daring to move a muscle even as the hard ground made her ache. She knew he waited for her to move first but her will would not bend; he could not win against her again. Minutes passed. Then, without warning, the man left the room. Suzume exhaled harshly, releasing the tension from her body, before slumping over. She wasn't sure how much more persecution she could take before she would never cry again. She rubbed the tears from her eyes. "I promise I'll make it."

* * *

Early in the morning, before the sun had even risen, Suzume set out to the training area. Although Kakashi had told them not to eat breakfast, Hidemi argued against it, saying "_you won't have enough energy to make it through a battle if you don't eat"_, so Suzume ended up eating lightly; she hadn't been about to refuse. As usual, she enjoyed her walk while listening to the waking birds, but anxiety built up inside of her. One day could decide her entire future. The fear settled deep inside her as she reached the field. Only Sasuke waited there, sitting silently against a tree. Not wanting to disturb the peace, Suzume sat across from him in the dew-covered grass, wrapping her arms around herself for warmth. She watched him through her breath.

He didn't move a single muscle, not acknowledging that Suzume was even there. She began to wonder if he had accidentally fallen asleep as she'd never seen Sasuke so serene. She found it a welcome change from the usual frown. Her friends would have killed to see this side of him, she thought. Mai loved Sasuke more than anyone else in the academy, she would always say. Suzume had never been sure why girls liked him so much if under his handsome exterior resided such a hateful personality. Perhaps his good looks were enough for most people, she decided.

"Do you have something to say?" Sasuke asked her, his narrow eyes now open.

Suzume jumped, having not realized his wakefulness right away. "Ah, sorry," she stuttered. Unable to say more, she looked down at the grass. He did not reply, but turned his head as if dismissing the entire situation. Suzume, unsure whether that meant he accepted her apology, continued to explain, "I was only lost in thought! I wasn't doing anything strange, if that's what you thought!" For some reason, she felt nervous, as if she had actually done wrong and had to justify herself.

Sasuke looked at her again, in a long, contemplative silence. Suzume squirmed under his gaze until finally, he smirked. "I never said anything like that."

Suzume froze, the gears in her head whirring. Suddenly, her mouth gaped in dumb shock. He had been purposefully making her uncomfortable just to see her suffer! "You-"

Before she could berate him further, Sakura skipped into the field, calling "Sasuke!" The high-pitched cry immediately incited Suzume's scorn. She turned angrily toward the offender while Sasuke turned dutifully away. "Good morning, Sasuke," Sakura chirped cheerfully despite being ignored.

"You're loud," Suzume snapped spitefully.

Sakura glared at her. "Nobody asked you!"

"Good morning, Sakura!" rang Naruto's voice across the clearing; Sasuke couldn't hide his irritation upon hearing it. The calm atmosphere had completely flown away. Naruto ran up to greet Sakura again, only for the girl to snub him in attempt to gain Sasuke's attentions. Suzume couldn't believe how dysfunctional the team was turning out to be.

"Good morning, Naruto," Suzume said, trying to save whatever team harmony they might have had. There was no reason to ignore Hidemi's advice from the morning. "_Make sure to get along with your teammates, even if you dislike them. That's the difference between life and death on some missions!"_ Suzume tried to smile pleasantly.

"Morning!" he responded loudly, grinning widely. A light blush rose to his cheeks as he scratched the back of his head shyly.

"Come sit," she suggested, patting the ground next to her. His eyes widened for a moment but he quickly took her offer.

After a few minutes of quiet conversation, Naruto admitted his surprise, "Wow, I never thought that you'd be so nice!"

"What do you mean?" she questioned, trying to shoulder his back-handed compliment. She hoped it didn't show on her face.

"Well, you always hang out with Itsuko, Mai, and Amaya so I just thought that you'd be a lot like them, and they don't seem very nice at all." Naruto looked thoughtful as he spoke. "You seem really different from them though!" He smiled toothily again.

Suzume wasn't sure whether to smile. "Thanks, Naruto. You're wrong though; they're not mean people. Actually, they're really amazing people! If you were ever be friends with them, you'd know what I mean. You can never judge them based only on what you see."

Naruto looked doubtful, which frustrated Suzume. She wanted him to see her friends' greatness. She'd have to find a way, she decided to herself.

The wind blew through the training grounds, the only noise that anyone could hear.

"Where is Kakashi?

* * *

**This has been heavily edited.**

**Remember to leave a review for suggestions!** **Yes, I do actually listen to suggestions and am willing to make changes.**


	3. Chapter 3

**There we go, guys! I've got the new chapter. Review please! :)**

* * *

**Chapter 3**

"So you finally managed to do something right for a change," said a smooth voice. The clinks of silverware on plates was the only other sound in the room. The girl's reddish eyes did not move from the food in front of her as emerald orbs pierced her personal bubble. An uncomfortable silence hung over the room, suffocating their voices. A smaller pair of eyes looked from between the two.

It had been like this the whole dinner. Suzume sat on one end of the table and her father sat on the other. Everyone in between kept looking back and forth, trying to spot any weaknesses or reactions. So far, it seemed that her father was winning.

"Anything to say for yourself?" he questioned. Still, the girl did not answer. It had been but a few hours since she had come home with her head held high, revelling in her accomplishment. After a grueling day of survival training, Suzume was finally able to call herself a ninja. The bell test was something that she **never** wanted to do again. In the end, she was the only one that had grasped the concept of teamwork though nobody else even stopped to listen to her.

But a slightly guilty feeling took her. She passed because she understood the need for teamwork in a ninja squad. Despite what Kakashi had praised her about, it wasn't because of her smarts. She couldn't help but feel that Hidemi was the only reason she passed. Often times, the younger sibling would say something about 'working together being the most important thing'.

Not to mention the constant taunts of 'a little genin like you couldn't defeat a jounin like me!'

"Who's your sensei?" Hidemi asked, hastily trying to change the subject.

"Hatake Kakashi," came the equally swift reply. As much as the girl hated talking to her sister, she hated talking to her father even more.

"Seriously?" the girl asked in astonishment. "He's a tough one. Never have any of his other genin teams passed his test!"

"Really?"

The young jounin nodded happily. "You guys must really be something." Although she would never mention it to anyone, Suzume took a bit of pride in her sister's words. "But let me just ask: was he really late?" She just nodded, feigning disinterest while Hidemi laughed quietly. "Good old Kakashi."

"Um... may I please be excused?" Without waiting for an answer, the brunette stood, picking up her plate and walked to the sink to wash it. Hurrying through drying it, Suzume rushed up to her room where she knew that her phone would be ringing. There were three separate lines in the house. One for the parents, one for Hidemi, and just the one that was originally there and because Gen was only three, Suzume got the only other calls.

When she got there, the colourful phone lit up as the high tone screeched through the air. Leaping for it, she propelled herself stomach first on to her bed. Thank god for cordless phones. "Yellow?" Her signature phone greeting.

_"Hey, Hun!"_

"Itsuko, what's up, boo?"

_"Ah, same old, same old. What's up with you?"_

"Eh, not much. Oh! I became a genin!"

_"Eh? Seriously? My team **failed**. Epically."_

"Aww. It's okay. You'll do better next time, right?"

_"That's so you; keeping your hopes high, even when chances are low."_

"Don't lie. You **will** make it next time."

_"Ha. If you say so. But of course **you** would make it. You always make everything. Sometimes I wish I could be as perfect as you are but then I stop and realize... **I am!**"_

"Just keep thinking that, boo. And I am **so** not perfect. Farthest from it."

_"You so **are** perfect. Gosh, even Mai thinks so and she's obsessed with herself."_

"No, she's obsessed with Sasuke."

_"... True dat. So, how goes it with Mr. Hottie? Any steamy moments that I should keep secret from Mai and Ayame?"_

"Nope. No secrets. And I don't mean that there are steamy moments."

_"Aw, I was just about to say... So nothing at all?"_

"Nah. I mean, I don't know. Sure, he's cute. Hot, even. But he's so off-limits."

_"Why?"_

"Uh, hello? You already named two reasons."

_"...?"_

"Mai and Ayame?"

_"Oh... right. But he's so cute and yes, hot. H-A-W-T spells hot!"_

"Whatever you say..."

_"Don't you think that those two would **want** you to be happy?"_

"Itsuko, I don't need Sasuke to be happy. I don't need any guy to be happy. I'm not you."

_"Oh that was low! True, but low!"_

"Haha. Whatever. I never said that I didn't want a guy though... I really wouldn't mind."

_"Ooh. Anyone in mind?"_

"Besides 'Mr. Hottie'? Not really."

_"You sure?"_

"Well... pretty sure."

_"Only **pretty** sure? As in 'not extremely' sure?"_

"Well, there is always Naruto."

_"Naruto?"_

"Yeah..."

_"But he's a dweeb, a loser, a... a..."_

"I was talking to him earlier. He's not that bad."

_"Uh, yeah he is. And didn't you hear? He's a total weirdo."_

"Yeah, you've said that a billion times now."

_"No, like, everyone says it. He's a total perv."_

"Ugh... whatever. I'm not into the whole gossip thing anymore."

_"Since when?"_

"Since **years** ago. Crap, I got to go. I'll talk to you later. Love you, boo!"

_"Peace, Hun!"_

* * *

It had been days since Suzume has last talked to Itsuko and it had upset her slightly to know that they left off on such a bad note. It's not like they had a fight but... little things like that could set a girl like Itsuko off like a spark in a room of dry firecrackers. Things could get around. Rumours.

She wanted to talk to her but it seemed like whenever she was busy, the green haired girl was out somewhere or wasn't able to come to the phone. And then other times, the brunette was running around doing house chores for other people. What lame excuses for missions.

And of course, as per usual, Suzume was **also**spacing out when she should be listening to the Hokage speak. She looked down to see Naruto talking about what kind of ramen he was going to eat that night. Something about beef and miso... Suzume wasn't quite sure.

That's when the Hokage started yelling. It made them her wince slightly though the rest of them stayed still. Naruto yelled back... and the Hokage cracked.

They got themselves a C-rank mission.

* * *

Suzume jumped slightly when Naruto hurled another kunai into a bush, her heart pounding in her chest. "Ah, it was just a mouse," he said with a sheepish look.

"Naruto, could you not throw those around? They're just a little bit dangerous," Kakashi said, sounding completely uninterested. Again, his face was inside that orange book of his.

"Yeah, you brat! Are you trying to give me a heart attack?" the old man scolded with his raspy voice. The brunette was going to have one too if he kept that up. Not too long ago, a few ninja had shown up and attacked them. She had been so scared, all she did was stand behind Tazuna. The only thing was, she had been facing outwards as would somebody guarding his rear. And she got credited for it.

Lucky break for her, eh?

Another kunai went flying into the bushes making a dull thump as it came in contact with who knows what. They all went to check.

"Aw! Bunny! I'm so sorry!" Naruto shouted, rubbing the snow white rabbit to his face. It was quite ridiculous.

"Naruto, I can't believe you did that," the girl said, staring at the frightened creature. Something flashed in the reflection of its moistened eye.

**"Duck!"**

They all dropped to the ground just in time for a huge sword to swing over the top of their heads, cutting off a few hairs. Suzume's red eyes were wide in fear, her chest tightening almost unbearably. She was pulled to her feet by Kakashi before she took her position guarding Tazuna.

A man stood on the blade that was now wedged deep into the trunk of a large tree. His small eyes were beady and piercing, the rest of his face being covered by white bandages. Brown hair was spiked up to show the slash through his ninja band. A missing-nin. A deep and malicious chuckle rang through the forest.

Something that she couldn't see was happening. Something that was surprising everyone. Something about... the Sharingan? What was the Sharingan?

Sasuke quickly explained the doujutsu. An eye technique that had the power to copy other techniques as well as take them apart and defeat them. A sort of kekkei genkai or bloodline limit. And Kakashi had it. The girl's stomach knotted itself more.

A thick mist began to roll in, not helping anyone to clear their minds. Suzume could barely concentrate on the conversation between Kakashi and the man, Zabuza. She looked to her right to see Sasuke staring at Kakashi with hard eyes. To her left, Sakura was standing stalk-still, the breath coming out in short little puffs. Naruto was on the front side of Tazuna, but it seemed that he was in better condition.

The mist thickened more, to a point where none of the genin could see what was happening. An eerie chant reverberated off the trees, naming vital points; eight different ways that he could kill them. A chill ran down their spines. Their nerves were being undone, as if they were the puppets of this devil-man.

The dark-haired boy to her right began to shake, his breathing becoming laboured. He seemed to be the most disturbed out of the four genin, though none could be sure.

"Sasuke," came the smooth voice of their sensei, calling the Uchiha's attention. "Don't worry, I'll protect you guys even if it kills me. I don't let my comrades die." A smile grcaed his face, even in the intensity that soaked the field. Sasuke's eyes just widened.

"It's over!" shouted a harsh voice as the enemy appeared in between all of the genin. Suddenly, they were all knocked away with a swift blow to their backs. Kakashi was seen in front of Zabuza as the sword came sweeping through. A water clone. Suzume let out her breath.

Their sensei was now behind his enemy, with a kunai to his throat. "It's over," he said cooly. The man obviously did not believe it as all he did was chuckle once more. It made the girl's blood run cold and her lungs to tighten, not wanting anymore of the tainted air. The real Zabuza appeared behind Kakashi as his clone was slashed through.

The Konoha ninja was kicked into the water in one strong movement, making Suzume jump once more. Her thoughts were crumbling quickly. A water prison. Their sensei was trapped within a little jail cell of aqua. A sense of hopelessness thrust itself upon the genin as well as the silver haired man.

Slowly, careful not to alert anyone, the girl back away into the protection of the trees. Once there, she turned and ran in a random direction, her primal instincts dominating her body even if her mind did not want her to. How could she abandon her team mates in a time like this?

How could she be such a coward?

She could hardly stand it but when the mind and body work against each other, one has no choice but to give in to the greatest instinct. That was the will to live. A human's greatest desire is to live. They **want** to stay alive and many will do what they can to make sure that they stay alive.

But Suzume didn't want to leave her team behind. She wanted to stay and be with them until the end, and die doing something heroic. Was her death supposed to be in vain? Was she such a despicable person that respect that that wasn't deserved?

(George Costanza is coming to mind here.)

No, she didn't want to be that person. Her feet stopped moving, but the momentum of her body kept going, resulting to her face in the ground. "Ite..." she muttered, the throbbing of her nose making her eyes water.

"Are you okay?" asked a light voice. Her head shot up to see who it was. There, she saw a figure dressed in loose robes of a cool hue and a white mask with a red design running across it. Four lines were etched into the forehead of the mask, forming the symbol of Kirigakure or the Mist Village. His hand was outstretched towards her.

Cautiously, she slipped her delicate fingers into his own slender hand. With a firm tug, he pulled her back onto her feet. "T-thanks..." she said almost inaudibly.

"No problem. Now what is a young girl like you doing in the forest all alone?" he asked gently. She took a quick look around. Nothing but trees, trees, and bushes.

Looking down, she twiddled her thumbs, almost ashamed to say anything. "I'm a ninja... and I'm supposed to be here with my team."

"Oh, are you? From Konoha, I presume..." She nodded shyly. "Well then, where is your team?"

"I... I don't know. I'm **supposed** to be with them but..." she started, trailing off.

"Ah, I see. I'm Haku, by the way," the boy told her with a bow. His voice was soft and not yet deep, so he couldn't be much older than she.

"Do you think you could help me find my team? I think they might be in a lot of trouble!" A small glimmer of hope danced within her red eyes as she looked up to him. He was silent for a moment.

"I'm sorry. I don't think I can do that," Haku said quietly.

"What do you mean?"

Again, he was silent. "Your team will be fine even without you there. So don't worry about them. I would worry about yourself." Before Suzume even had time to think, she found her body pressed up against a tree with something sharp and cold rested against the sensitive skin of her neck. "You never know who's an enemy..." he hissed into her ear.

She struggled against in but with no avail. It was useless to try to overpower somebody who could easily slit your throat. So she stilled herself and tried to calm her breathing. "Zabuza-san will need me soon. And... now that you've spoken to me, I don't think I can let you go." Her eyes widened as he sighed. "I'm sorry but I have no choice."

A sharp pain.

And darkness.

* * *

Goose bumps covered the pale skin of her body as she lay there on a cold and wet surface. Her eyes were clouded and her head was pounding. A dull ache revealed itself as she pushed herself into a sitting position. The surrounding area was plain, grey stone with a wooden door and a small window. "So you're awake." The voice was familiar.

Immediately, Suzume's body jolted up into a fighting postion as she faced a boy with long dark hair and chocolate brown eyes. Haku.

He put his hands up. "Calm down. I'm not here to hurt you." She shot him a skeptical look before lowering her own hands but remaining stiff, ready to fight if the need ever came. "I just knocked you out and I'm not going to kill you. I couldn't just kill you like that... I guess I'm just too soft for it." A small smile grew on his feminine face.

"How can I be so sure? You said it yourself, 'You never know who's an enemy'. Why should I trust you?" A hint of defiance laced her hasty words.

Haku chuckled slightly. "Do you really have a choice? I mean, you're the one who's stuck in this little room until I decide that you're ready to come out."

This was true. The girl just continued to stare at him, waiting for him to say something. "Would you like to tell me your name?"

She thought for a moment. What was the harm in giving him her name? She was already captured so what else could happen? "Suzume. My name is Suzume." Her voice was slightly cracked as her throat was parched.

"That's a nice name," he replied with a friendly smile. It was very suspicious.

"Hey Haku, is the girl up yet?" The door opened to reveal Zabuza without his bandages. His eyes surveyed her for a moment.

"Yes, Suzume-chan is awake now. Should I take her up?" Haku answered politely. It made him seem especially feminine. Zabuza just gave a curt nod before the boy directed her to follow him out of the room. It led them up a flight of stairs and down a hall way until they got into a room with a few couches, a table, and a small kitchen area. It was much like an apartment.

"Where is this and why am I here? Why am I not dead?" she spat out, demanding answers.

"Are you complaining? Because we **could**kill you, if that's what you want so badly," the tall man snapped. She jumped up in surprise at the volume of his voice. Haku seemed unmoved. She shook her head excessively.

"Here," said Haku, handing her a glass of water. She gulped it down faster than a man who had been in the desert for days. "You're here because I thought that you had potential." She looked up in mild surprise. Her? Potential?

"Me?"

"No, me," Zabuza snorted. Haku laughed slightly.

"Yes, you. Zabuza-san thinks so as well."

This confused her even more. "You think so? But... how? All I did was run away."

"Which was the smart thing to do. Unlike your idiot team mates. And you did a pretty good job keeping your nerves in check even under the pressure from somebody like me." This was the first positive thing that Zabuza had said to her. And in a way, it made her feel good about herself. "You're stronger than you think you are and if you can find a way to harness that potential, then you could be even stronger than I am some day."

Suzume looked between Haku and Zabuza, unsure of their praise. "Don't worry, Suzume-chan. I'm going to train you while Zabuza-san gets his rest." The pale boy look at her with a sort of hidden excitement.

"That is, if you swear that you will not run from us like you did them. If you do, we **will** kill you." The man's voice was sharp and meaningful. They meant what they said. She could only agree. "Good then. You've made the right decision, young one. You'll do good in the future." That was the last of him before he exited up another set of stairs.

She turned back to Haku. "Is he always like that?"

"Like what?" the boy replied, with a genuinely confused look.

"Nice but not nice at the same time."

A silvery chortle escaped from his smooth lips. "Pretty much. Now come, we've got to get started but first, how about something to eat?"

* * *

"Long time, no see Kakashi. I see you're still with those brats. He's shaking again... the poor kid," a dark voice prattled. Instantly, Zabuza clones covered the area around Tazuna and his ninja guards.

"I'm shaking... from excitement," the dark-haired boy smirked. In a flash, he had cut through each and every one of the clones.

"Hm... he saw through the water clones. That brat has grown. It looks like a rival has appeared, eh Haku?"

The boy appeared behind his master, "Indeed it does." Again, he wore the hunter-nin outfit, the mask hiding his true identity from the enemy. The genin muttered hateful words towards him as their suspicions were confirmed. Sasuke seemed to be the one who felt the most compelled to fight him.

Haku first initiated the battle by spinning forward. Two blades clashed in a fury of sparks. The Uchiha must have definitely have been skilled to keep up with the older boy's speed. But that left one of his hands occupied. The elder rapidly made hand signs using his one free hand to created ice needles before launching them at his opponent. Sasuke dodged.

He reappeared behind Haku and kicked him back toward Zabuza, surprising the man greatly. Haku's strongest asset was speed. He could not lose.

Footsteps sounded on the bridge. Through the mist, a slim figure began to immerge. The sound was slow and haunting, echoing off each drop of water, magnifying the intensity. Black ninja shoes came into view, only reaching just above the ankle before being folded down. Black fishnet covered the silky pearl legs up to under the knee where the cuffs of poofy brown pants revealed themselves.

Azure fabric covered the torso and the arms down to the elbow where another grey-ish sweater covered the rest. It was in the style of a Japanese kimono, much like Haku's, trimmed with grey. A bright red obi was tied around the thin waste of the figure. Chesnut hair was tied into a bun like Haku as well, with a tan cover tied with ribbon. Bangs were swept to the left side while two long parts of hair hung down from the sides of a pale face, reaching the protruding chest of the person.

Reddish eyes looked up to those of her former team.

"Suzume!" Sakura shouted to her.

"So you're finally here. Took you long enough, kid." Zabuza looked to her before turning back to Kakashi, a devilish look on his face.

"Suzume, what are you doing here?" Kakashi demanded. The girl said nothing but continued to stare. Her chest tightened slightly but to get her mind away from the nervous feeling she walked over to Haku.

"Falling down already? Don't tell me that he got the best of you," she teased lightly, while helping him up.

"Not even. Have your nerves got the best of you?" he retaliated. An annoyed look flashed on her face before she looked back to her team.

"Go on, Haku. Continue your fight. I want to see how he does," she whispered into his ear. He nodded slightly before turning back to Sasuke. His chakra swelling, he made a hand symbol. The water behind the younger boy began to rise and cool, surrounding him in big blocks of ice. As Haku stepped into a block of his ice, Kakashi ran to help, only to be intercepted by Zabuza.

"Your opponent is me. Against that justu, he's finished," he boasted, enjoying the look of helplessness on the other man's face.

Haku began his attack. Thousands and thousands of needles rushed towards Sasuke at top speeds, slicing his skin over and over again. A scream of agony rang through the air, making Suzume flinch. She bit down on the inside of her cheek in an attempt to resist her urges. Sakura tried to turn the table of the fight but was unable to attack strong enough. He caught the kunai she threw wth ease.

He did however get a shuriken to the face.

A huge blast of colourful smoke exploded over the bridge, almost making the brunette girl scream. It was so close to her, that she could have inhaled all of those toxic fumes that she swore emitted from it.

"Uzumaki Naruto has finally arrived!"

What an idiot. Suzume was inwardly upset that Naruto had not been smart enough to use the element of surprise. Zabuza threw some shuriken in his direction, only to be blocked by some of Haku's senbon (needles). While they had a short discussion, Naruto noticed the girl.

"Suzume-chan? Where have you been? And where is Sasuke?" He didn't seem to notice that her affiliation had changed. As much as she hated to be pit against her former team mate, the girl used that to her advantage.

"Thank god you're here Naruto. Sasuke would be doomed without you. He's in that group of mirrors there. Go inside and help him," she explained quickly. And he listened, no questions asked. It was then that she regretted telling him to go in there but before she could say otherwise, he was in.

Sasuke ended up yelling at him for coming on the inside. And he had the right to.

Suzume knew about how Haku's technique worked. It was almost impossible for a few genin of their level to escape. Hell, Kakashi couldn't even escape from that. It was his kekkei genkai and he was the only person in the world who could use it. She watched as Naruto and Sasuke were showered with senbon once more. It was almost too much to stand.

She knew that Haku didn't want to kill them. In fact, there were few people that he actually wanted to kill. But... his devotion to Zabuza was too strong and such was the way of the ninja. He explained this to everyone. It almost broke the girl's heart to know that there was nothing she could do. Her objective at this moment was to get in, kill the old man, and get out. It was her mission to make sure that her team failed theirs. No, her former team.

"Suzume. Get him." Short words from Zabuza... and she was off.

Her feet moved across that ground lightly, not making a single sound. She was already half way there a second after her orders were issued. Both Kakashi and Sakura's eyes widened at her speed. Yes, she had been taught by Haku and trained intensely for months. Kakashi had no time to intervene as Zabuza jumped into battle, forcing out the sharingan.

Suzume slashed down in Tazuna's direction but was blocked by Sakura. Her loathsome green eyes glared into Suzume's with such vehemence, that it bored into her soul. "I can't believe you betrayed us," she seethed. Their kunai pushed against each other in a dead lock. The old man backed away slightly.

"Sakura, listen to me," the brunette muttered under her breath. This caught the pink haired girl's attention. "I'm a double agent. I'm on your side but they don't know that so we have to pretend to fight if my plan is going to work, okay?" They shared an understanding glance.

Suzume shoved the other girl to the side before 'attacking' again. The pretended to get into a dead lock again though neither of the others were paying attention. "So got any ideas on how to kill these guys?" Sakura asked her quietly.

"We're not going to kill them. I can't. They're not bad people. The guy they work for is the bad person..." she flipped Sakura onto the ground who immediately round house kicked her to make her fall as well. It knocked the wind out of her for a moment.

"So how the hell are we getting out of this?" the girl whispered harshly. They kicked themselves away from each other before throwing a few weapons. Sakura threw an exploding tag but not before making sure that Suzume knew it was coming. She was able to easily dodge it but it called attention from the other two groups.

"Suzume, why do you insist on toying with the girl? Can't you just finish her off and kill the old guy?" Zabuza asked her disapprovingly.

"How come you guys get all the fun? It's because I'm a girl, isn't it?" she retorted with a smug look on her face. The man gave an exasperated sigh while Haku laughed a bit at her words. Naruto and Sasuke both looked really pissed off, both at Suzume and the fact that Haku didn't look very tired at all.

She turned back in time to deflect Sakura's attack. "Don't worry. We'll get out. I've done some serious spying and I know for sure that it'll work out. As long as Haku doesn't kill the boys and Zabuza and Kakashi don't kill each other..."

All of a sudden, a powerful wave of chakra blasted through the air. A terrible and heavy feeling washed over Suzume's whole body but also, I sense of attraction. She looked over to Haku's mirrors to see the head of a bright orange fox composed of chakra. Her body seemed to move on its own, slinking closer to the mirrors. Haku smashed through one of his mirrors.

"Impossible!" she shouted, hurrying to find out what happened. There she saw Naruto but he wasn't the same. His eyes were blood red and slitted while his hands were tense with sharp claws. The lines on his face were deepened and darkened, giving him a feral look. And yet, her body still pulled her closer.

Haku's mask crumbled. Naruto ran in for the last final punch that was sure to kill the boy.

The punch never came.

But Haku gave in. He told Naruto to kill him... to put him out of the misery of not being needed. Zabuza had no need for a weak ninja. So Naruto took out his kunai and ran toward the older boy, ready to deal the final blow. He was stopped last minute by Haku, "Sorry, Naruto-kun, I can't die yet!" His hand formed a symbol and he was gone.

...

Blood splattered on the ground, covering Kakashi's face with the warm sticky redness. He stood, eyes wide with shock, his arm within the chest of Haku. Or rather, the shell that was. "Wrong again, Kakashi," Zabuza bragged. "Great job, Haku." He lifted his sword, ready to cut through both Haku and Kakashi. The man dodged, bringing the dead boy with him.

He layed him down to the side and closed the eyes, covering the black stare of death. Suzume ran over and kneeled by his side, tears clouding eyes. "Haku... you... you're..." A single tear fell to the ground. Ninja don't cry. They're not supposed to cry. Not too far off, she could hear Sakura's wails. Sasuke had fallen as well.

What madness...

The life of a ninja is terrifying. Any day could be your last. There's no room for mistakes. Take a single step in the wrong drirection and it could be your life or even the life of a comrade. Something poked at the back of her mind.

What was the difference between a good ninja... and an evil one?

* * *

**Ta-da!**


	4. Chapter 4

**And here is chapter four. Working on chapter five already guys and there is going to be some drama and some action.**

**Read on!**

* * *

**Chapter 4**

Suzume jolted awake. Light shone through the open window, a tranquil breeze blowing through the room. She sat up, looking to the ground as her thoughts from the previous day returned. Haku was gone as well as Zabuza. They both kept fighting until the very end. They were some of the bravest that she had ever known.

She shook her head to get her mind away from it. She rose out of the bed she slept in and hurried to change, already hearing the voices coming from downstairs. The robes were baggy and comfortable against her skin. Shuffling downstairs, the others seemed about ready to head off, while the village gathered around one end of the completed bridge.

"Ready?" Kakashi asked her. The brunette nodded slightly and the man smiled at her. He walked out the door with his team in tow.

Naruto and Inari had a rather emotional good bye while the others stood watching, half laughing at their craziness and half crying about the beauty of friendship. Apparently, Naruto had inspired the young boy and taught him that there was more to life than what he had originally thought. He really was an extraordinary boy.

Eventually, they made their way across the bridge. Kakashi turned his head in Suzume's direction. "That was a dangerous thing you did, stepping into enemy territory. They could have killed you and then what kind of help would you have been?"

The girl looked to the ground before looking back up at her sensei. "Isn't that just a risk I have to take, sensei? Being a ninja is about taking risks, you know." He looked at her from the corner of his eye.

"Ah, you got me there. But no more going off on your own, okay? You might be smart and have chosen the right thing this time but who knows? Next time, the enemy might not be as compassionate."

"Yes, sensei," she agreed. In the end, Suzume somehow managed to turn her original cowardice into something heroic and intelligent. She wasn't sure exactly how she did it but... she wasn't exactly about to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. She was a ninja, right? Since when did ninja tell the full truth?

"You're going to have to show me what they've taught you when we get back to Konoha. And I mean everything. No leaving out any big and powerful jutsu. It's for your own good," he explained to her, nose in that book again. Make-out Paradise. It's hard to take a pervert seriously.

* * *

The early morning sun turned the sky pink as its rays gently touched the earth, illuminating the world. Team seven again sat in the large clearing, awaiting the arrival of their famous mentor. They still had many hours to go but none were too surprised as the man had been tardy since day one.

A petite brunette girl sat on the warm grass, wrapping individual blades around her delicate fingers. Still, the memories of the past lived on inside of her, the robes being a constant reminder of her teachings. And in her room, on the dresser drawer lies the broken pieces of the brave ninja's mask. She could not find it in herself to disturb them... not yet.

A lot was going on at the time. Somehow, her family had gotten word of her little 'undercover plan'. That's what everbody thought it was. It was the first time that her father had something to say that didn't have some sort of sarcasm to it. In fact, it was praise. Hidemi had acknowledged her for it as well. It was almost mind blowing.

Reddish eyes looked up to the now blue sky, studying the flawlessness of the air. A contented sigh blew past her lips as she closed her eyes, just relaxing in the good atmosphere.

"Yo," came a lazy toned voice from somewhere to her left. "Are you ready?" Kakashi stood tall on a large wooden poll, somehow finding balance and a way to look 'cool' in front of his students. Suzume made eye contact with him.

"Kakashi-sensei? Here already?" Naruto exclaimed with surprise. "No way!" His blue eyes were wide but excited, anticipating the training that Kakashi was sure to give them.

"Today is a special day, Naruto. We're going to find out just what you genin are capable of," stated the man. Suzume looked up at him, studying to see if she could find anything that betrayed what he was thinking. Of course, she found nothing.

"What are we going to be doing?" she asked after being sure that she was not about to get anything out of him.

"Sparring." The word slipped out of his mouth in a cheery way. "I guess we'll put you two girls together and then the boys. Then we'll make the winners fight. Everybody understand?" He looked between the team.

Naruto raised his hand. "What are the rules?"

"Glad you asked. I'm going to say that this is strictly taijutsu with the use of weapons. We don't want to go full out and kill each other. No. If I have to, I **will **interfere. Kapiche?" He looked at them once more to make sure that they understood. Sasuke seemed a tad bit disappointed.

"Comprende," Sakura smiled. She sent a sly glare in Suzume's direction, which the girl caught and shot right back. "So, can we start now, sensei?" The man backed away from the middle as did the boys. A coy smile slunk onto her pasty face, a mischievous streak dancing in her emerald eyes. The brunette looked at the silver haired man is disbelief.

A crash of pain landed itself down onto her right cheek, forcing her to the ground. Suzume went into a momentary shock. Sakura, using this to her advantage, pulled out a kunai and put it to her throat. A triumphant smirk was plastered on her face, her eyes darting over to check if a certain boy was watching. Naruto looked unsure about whether or not to cheer.

Sasuke stared into Suzume's eyes with a hint of disappointment on his face.

"Well then... I guess that Sakura-" Kakashi began.

However, he was interrupted by a loud thud. The pink haired girl slid across the dirt, dust flying up as she went. The brunette crouched on one leg, the other outstretched to the side, her arms supporting her weight to the front. A lethal spark flared between the two. The pink haired girl stood up once more, her enemy remaining still.

Suzume waited for her move. Sakura first drew weapons, throwing shuriken toward her. They were easy enough to dodge but they kept the brunette moving. Her path began to take the shape of a clockwise circle, all around the origin of the weapons. She saw the thin wire right before taking her next jump. The momentum was too much. Thinking fast, the girl's body contorted into a back arch before kicking up her legs to get back onto her feet.

A smirk still showed itself on the opponent. One more shuriken was thrown, directly at the wire. Suzume moved forward in order to stop it.

A small snap could be heard.

And then... **BOOM!**

The girl went flying, half from the blast and half from her attempt to escape it. She landed roughly 10 metres away from Sakura. Her temper blazed like a forest fire.

"That's it, Haruno."

Suzume ran a few metres before throwing a kunai and some senbon. Sakura dodged both fairly well but a single senbon pierced her arm. In the air, the needles were difficult to see when juxtaposed with the kunai, making them even more deadly when thrown in combination. The pink haired girl winced but pulled it out, examining it quickly before looking back up.

Her opponent had disappeared.

She looked to her left, right, backside, up, and down. Her arms were up, ready to both attack and defend. The wind whistled slightly as two senbon when flying past her nose, missing by less than an inch. In the instant she turned, maybe fifty more were heading toward her. She focused chakra into her feet then jumped away, dodging the thin bringers-of-death.

Suzume carefully moved from her place in the trees, using the wind that mistracked her needles as a cover. Sakura could not hear her move nor could she see her, therefore, the girl thought that she was still in the general area. Green eyes still scanned the surrounding field, making her like a lone fawn in the fox's den. The brunette thought for a moment.

Throwing weapons was out of the cards, as the wind was too strong and there was no way to calculate at which angle to throw to hit the target. Traps were pointless if you couldn't kill and there was no way that Sakura was going to fall for something as easily as Naruto. Unless...

A few senbon slipped out of her sleeve and in between her fingers. One by one, without making a single sound, she aimed and threw them while the enemy wasn't looking. The girl didn't seem to notice but the boys sure did.

The senbon formed a small ring, a web of almost invisible wires lining one side. That's when the other girl noticed, jumping out of the ring faster than the blink of an eye. Mistake number one. She was immediately shoved to the grass face first under Suzume's body weight. A kunai was held to her neck while one of the brunette's legs restrained Sakura's. The other hand held her arms down behind her.

Sakura groaned in dismay.

"_Now _it's over." The brunette made the words bite into her opponent as she savoured the sweet taste of victory. The smirk from Sakura's face was gone and somehow, it transferred itself to Suzume. She stole a glance to the side. Naruto was still unsure about whether or not to cheer while Kakashi looked in thought. Sasuke made a face that said 'now that's more like it'.

"So the winner of this round is Suzume. Good job," Kakashi congradulated. "Now we'll have Sasuke and Naruto. Go on. As soon as the girls step off, you can start."

They nodded and took their places. Sakura ran off so that she could watch Sasuke fight while Suzume took her sweet time. The Uchiha boy glared at her for walking so slow. "You **can** hurry it up, you know," he muttered. Then she stopped walking.

"Why would I do that?" teased the girl. Naruto looked suspicious as to what they were whispering about. Sasuke hardened his glare. "Sorry. I'm just kidding. Don't kill me in my sleep."

"No promises."

And with that she walked off of the battle area.

And the fight began.

* * *

"Go Sasuke!" cheered Sakura. The Uchiha stood above the fallen blonde boy, a smirk planted on his pale lips. A feeling of unnameable dread hovered over Suzume as she watched Naruto stand with a huff, storming off of the battle area. If Naruto lost... then that would mean that she would have to fight...

Her eyes travelled up and met with onyx, a challenge being made. She did not respond but merely looked to Kakashi. The man walked over to Naruto, inspecting him carefully, probably looking for injuries.

Bingo.

As he touched the boy's side, he received a violent reaction.

"Hm... it seems that you've broken a few ribs, Sasuke," Kakashi said lazily. The Uchiha looked over to Naruto. "I guess we have no choice but to bring him to the hospital to be healed. You can fight Suzume later." And with that, he dragged (quite literally) the blonde away from the training grounds with Sakura in tow.

A slightly angered expression covered his features. "Damn it," he muttered to himself and with one last glance in her direction, Sasuke left Suzume standing alone.

The breath that she had been holding finally let itself out. The thought of having to fight him scared her. Sure, she could take down Sakura but that was because they were arch enemies! She couldn't just have this sudden desire to defeat Sasuke.

"I'm going for a walk," she said to no one in particular before starting her small trek through the thick foliage of the training grounds. The roots jutted out of the ground in peculiar ways, forcing her to pay extra attention to the ground and where she stepped. Let's just say that she wasn't the most coordinate person in the world.

"Stupid Sasuke. Why does he still want to fight me? I can't fight him. He'll kill me. He practically destroyed Naruto and now he's going to do the same to me! Oh god oh god oh god. Is Kakashi serious? I'm going to be beat to a pulp; a bloody, messy pulp. Ugh... Calm down Suzume, it's all going to be all-"

CRASH!

The brunette groaned as she lifted her face from the ground. Note: Talking to yourself makes you less attentive to the world around you. She stood once more, keeping her mouth shut so that she wouldn't trip over those stupid roots again.

As soon as she was out of the woods, she began her rant once more.

"Stupid trees and their stupid roots. That freakin' hurt... and that's only a fraction of what Sasuke will do. I need a way to get out of this. Maybe I just won't show up for training! Darn. They'd probably egg my window to get me up or something. So I'm going to need some sort of excuse. I can't say I'm injured because then Kakashi would be able to check it and if they think I am, they might rbing me to the hospital. That wouldn't be too great when they find out that I'm perfectly fine.

I could just forfeit my match but I doubt Kakashi would let me do that. He's supposed to be testing my skills, right? Can't I just say that I'm not confident that I could defeat Sasuke? And then be called a coward. My family would probably hear about that and then they wouldn't be so happy. No, that'd suck monkey nuts..."

"Monkey nuts? Suzu-chan, are you feeling alright?" a high voice asked. The girl spun around to see a very confused Itsuko with an equally confused Mai.

"Uh... maybe?" the brunette replied, holding up her hands in an 'I-don't-know' pose (kind of like a shrug). There was a silence before all three girls broke out into laughter.

"Oh Suzu, sometimes you are just so... you," Mai managed to choke out through her giggles. Suzume just stuck her tongue out and pulled them into a crushing hug. They struggled out of it, trying to save their air from laughter (unsuccessfully).

"How long have you guys been here?" she questioned, wondering if they had seen her muttering to herself or if they saw when she smacked her own head. Funny that I didn't mention that.

Itsuko spoke up first, "Eh, not very long. But long enough for you to say something about sucking a monkey's balls?" Mai snorted slightly.

"Ew no!" the brunette protested. Her face twisted in disgust. "I said that something would suck monkey **nuts**, not balls. You sicko!" She scolded Itsuko playfully, shaking her index finger in the air while Mai made the symbol of shame.

"So anyway, what were you doing?" the green haired girl pressed on, ignoring the chants of shame.

"Oh nothing. Just some ninja thing," replied Suzume. As the wind blew by, Her delicate fingers brushed the hair out of her face. Itsuko looked her up and down, "Oh yeah, the whole ninja... thing. What's up with the outfit? You looked so cute before."

"What do you mean?" the brunette questioned, examining her own clothes.

"Well, they're... different. So why aren't you wearing your other clothes?" Mai answered for Itsuko. Reddish eyes scanned the both of them.

"Well, why can't I wear these ones? Don't they work just the same?"

The two girls looked at each other, exchanging a silent conversation, excluding Suzume. "Um... yeah, like... it's okay, I guess but like... you should wear your old clothes. You looked killer in the short shorts. Besides, don't you want to look your best for Mr. Hottie?" The green haired girl raised her eyebrows suggestively.

"Who's Mr. Hottie?" jumped the blonde girl.

Suzume rolled her eyes. "She means to say Sasuke but for some reason, she's incapable of using proper names." Said girl just grinned cheesily while Mai looked slightly taken back.

"Uchiha Sasuke?" she questioned. "You mean, as in, the guy I've been crushing on for like, ever?" A dangerous streak of jealousy flickered in her blue eyes.

The brunette backed away slightly, holding up her hands. "No, it's not like that. I don't like him like that because I know that you like him and deserve him," she explained quickly.

"So, you're not going after him because I want him?" the blonde retorted quickly, her voice sharpening.

"No no no no no. I wouldn't like him anyway! It's just that I also know that you like him and even if I did like him, he would never like me because you guys will probably have a thing and... and... yeah." The words flew by like a bullet train.

Mai looked at her for a moment before smiling. "Thanks and I just came up with a brill idea!" she chirped joyfully, clasping her hands together by her chest.

Itsuko's eyes shimmered as if they were solid gold, a new excitement filling her body. "What is it, Mai? Something evil and vicious to eliminate Sakura?"

"I almost totally forgot about that bitch," admitted the girl. "But anyway, my plan is simple. Suzume, do you think that you could hook me up with Sasuke?" She asked it like it was a question but the brunette knew better. It really meant that either way, she **had** to or else there would be some real drama.

"Uh, yeah, sure. I'll... talk to him," she agreed, thinking about how she was to pull this off.

"And keep Sakura occupied. Just... I don't know, kill her," the green haired girl added in. Suzume rolled her eyes. "This is so awesome! Almost as awesome as last night but **nothing** is as awesome as last night."

"What happened last night?" Mai looked to her, confused.

A small smirk of satisfaction came to the girl's face. She flipped her green hair back and giggled a bit. "I did it." Simple words. No meaning.

"Okay, that makes no sense," said Suzume. "Did what?"

"I did **it**. You know... sex?" The other girls' eyes grew wide. Mai screamed, jumping up and down with Itsuko.

"Oh my god! And you didn't tell me? What's wrong with you? Tell me all the dirty details," the blonde requested, giggling insanely. Suzume looked to her friend in shock. When they were in the academy, they had talked about it but she never thought that any of them would do it. Well, at the time they seemed pretty serious, even her but...

"Suzu-chan, aren't you happy for me?" Itsuko looked over at her in a concerned way.

"Uh, yeah. Good job," she said, forcing a smile. Weird. She never had to fake a smile toward her friends before, especially her best. But the green haired girl smiled none the less and began to give them the details. Suzume listened when curiousity got the better of her.

When she was done, Mai gaped. "All of that for your first time? I got that one my like, tenth time!" The other just laughed at her.

"Wait, you've done it too?" Suzume questioned. "How out of the loop am I?"

They looked to her. "Oh yeah, sorry. You were gone for so long that I guess I forgot and though you already knew."

"And with who?" The brunette was now determined to catch up on everything she had missed.

"Oh, just a few people," replied the blonde, looking at her freshly manicured nails. Reddish eyes widened. A few? A **few?** "But that's not important. Have you done it yet?"

"No, I think I'm just going to wait for now," the brunette said quickly. "Anyway, I got to go, guys."

The two looked at her with a strange expression. "What's with you, Suzu-chan? You're so different."

"What do you mean? No, I'm not," she protested.

"Yeah, you are. You dress weirdly now and you don't seem to want to hang out with us. And when you do hang out with us, you always seem like you don't really care. You're different," explained Itsuko, looking at her sadly.

Suzume just stared at the two. "Well, you guys always just go on and on about your boyfriends. I'm actually not that interested with boys. I want to hear more about you guys and sometimes me. And how I dress doesn't really matter anyway."

"Uh... sure," Mai replied. "We got to go." The blonde grabbed Itsuko by the wrist and dragged her off, not bothering to say good bye. The brunette watched them go before turning around and continuing her walk.

* * *

**:P**

**Read number five as it'll come out soon!**


	5. Chapter 5

**So this is finally out. :P**

* * *

**Chapter 5**

The next day was free from training and missions, leaving Suzume with absolutely nothing to do. So with the hope of running into one of her friends, she walked around, surreptitiously searching. Countless numbers of teenagers walked by, all of them staring at her. It was strange because none of them even said hello but rather they just walked faster. Were they avoiding her?

"Hey you," called a voice. Suzume looked up to stare at the boy who called her, meeting his onyx eyes with her red. She said nothing as he gestured her over.

"Hey, Sasuke, what is it?" she asked, still looking around to see if any of her friends were coming.

"Fight me." Her eyes shot back to the Uchiha. "I want you to fight me. In the training grounds. Now." The look on his face showed that he was dead serious.

Suzume stuttered, "B-but, I mean... why?"

His stare continued to bore through her but she couldn't look away. "Because. You were with those two missing-nin for so long and I want to find out what you know." His eyes flashed red for a second. Sharingan?

Suddenly, it clicked in her brain. Sasuke wanted to fight her to see if he could copy any of her techniques. "No," came her simple reply before turning on her heel and walking away. A hand grabbed her arm roughly, pulling her backward to crash into a wall.

"That is not an option. You're going to fight me whether you like it or not and if you refuse... then I'll attack you anyway. You have no choice," he growled. It was true. Either way, the girl would be forced to fight the boy. She groaned inwardly when the realization came.

"Okay, fine. I'll fight you on one condition," the brunette said finally. Sasuke glared at her but gave her the notion to proceed. "You have to go on a date with one of my friends."

Sasuke scoffed. "No. I refuse." If she had a choice, Suzume wouldn't force him to go on the date but then again, she didn't want to get on Mai's bad side. Besides, they were friends right? And friends help their friends.

"Then I refuse to fight and if you attack me, I'll just run away," she said simply. She stuck her nose in the air and waltzed away. She heard foot steps before his hand pulled her back again.

She looked at him with a raised eyebrow and a slight smirk while he went through inner turmoil. He sighed in defeat and growled slightly. "Fine. I'll go on a date with your friend." Suzume was slightly surprised at this. Did he really want to fight her that much that he'd agree to a date with a rabid fan girl? Yikes.

"Fine."

* * *

Her thoughts came flying at the speed of sound, overflowing her mind and tugging on her nerves. Shivers racked her slim figure and her breath drew short. The thought of fighting with Sasuke made her uneasy. The boy stood a short distance away, both waiting for somebody to make the first move.

The first thing she did was take a kunai, seemingly out of nowhere, and whip it at him. Of course, he dodged it with ease and looked at her. "It's going to take more than that," he smirked. She threw five more, all in different places, making him move in order to avoid them.

She saw his eyes widen right before her leg came in contact with the side of his body, the force propelling him several metres away. He slid across the ground, the dirt flying up into the warm air. A trouble expression covered his face before he relaxed and closed his eyes slowly. Suzume watched him carefully, her arms up in a defensive position and her legs bent and spread.

Sasuke's eyes snapped open, revealing his blood red orbs, startling the girl. He charged, his speed tremendously increased from before. His hands moved faster than she could see as he formed seals. Suzume put her hands up to do a jutsu but she hesitated for a moment, knowing that Sasuke would copy it. The boy jumped into the air and released what was in his lungs. A fury of fire covered the whole clearing, engulfing the girl in its deadly breath.

When the flames cleared, the Uchiha briefly saw the bubble of water before it fell to the unharmed ground, slipping off her ivory skin as if she was wearing a raincoat. Suzume saw his crimson eyes narrow at her as he dropped to the ground, landing silently on his feet. He studied her, turning her inside out.

Unable to stand the pressure, the brunette began to whip shuriken in his direction, forcing him out of his examination. Suddenly, she lost sight of him only to feel a sharp gust of air go by. Instinctively, the girl threw her arm up, catching his leg up by her head. He twisted out of her grasp before catching her punch.

He held onto her fist tightly while grabbing onto her other arm to pull it closer. Sasuke put his weight on her, forcing her onto her stomach with both her arms at his mercy. She squeaked in pain as he applied pressure to her elbow, trying to make it bend in ways that it was not made to.

"Okay okay okay, I give up!" she shouted finally, after she could take no more. The boy removed himself from her, standing with a blank expression on his face. The girl stood, dusting herself off while grumbling to herself. "Can I go now?" she asked impatiently.

Suzume flicked her head back to reposition her bangs and rolled her eyes at him. As she passed him, they bumped shoulders slightly, exchanging one last glance. She walked on alone when all of a sudden, something whistled through the air. Pivoting rapidly, the brunette caught the kunai in midair, turned it around, and sent it flying back. All within the fraction of a second.

Sasuke ducked to avoid it but glared intensely. "Fight me again," came the hard words from his cold voice. Suzume frowned at him.

"What? No! You won, can't you be happy about that?" In an instant, he was in front of her, his fist coming toward her face at top speeds. She caught it, moving it away from her face. "What was that for?" she half shouted.

He snarled at her, "You expect me to believe that I beat you when you were trying. You **let** me win. You **weren't **trying!" She struggled to keep his hands in place while avoiding his Sharingan.

"Look, I didn't want to do this in the first place!" Still, he persisted in escaping from her. "Why the hell do you need to win so badly?" She had to use all of her force and then some and still, the struggle was stupendous.

"Shut up and fight me!"

Suzume once again followed her instincts.

Sasuke bent over, holding the inflicted area and groaning loudly. He'll probably never have kids. Suzume looked down at him as he hunched onver on the ground and pity filled her eyes. "Sorry, but I'm not about to fight you just so that you can learn my techniques. I'll find you later about that date."

* * *

"Guys, I've been looking everywhere for you!" shouted Suzume to the small group of girls that were laughing as they strolled down the street. They looked over to her as she came closer. "Where've you been?"

They all cast short glances to each other, chuckling awkwardly. "Oh, Suzume... hi," greeted Itsuko through her smile. The brunette looked at her in confusion. First of all, her smile? What was up with that? And secondly, the green haired girl never called her by her real name. It was always 'Suzu-chan'.

"What's wrong?" Her red eyes studied the three girls. Mai and Ayame were slightly farther away than Itsuko and they both avoided eye contact.

"Um... I don't know if we should be seen together," the darker blonde said, gaze still fixed on the ground. Suzume arched an eyebrow.

"What do you mean by that?" The girls glanced at each other again. This time, Mai piped up, "Well, it's just that... we don't want to be seen as..." she paused a moment, looking back and forth before continuing in a whisper, "Lesbians."

The girl was taken aback by this. "Lesbians? Why the heck would anybody think that you're a lesbian?"

"Because of you," muttered Ayame. "Everybody knows it now. You're out of the closet."

"What? I'm not a lesbian," retorted Suzume. "Who said that?"

An uncomfortable silence came upon them. The only sound was the wind rushing through the trees and blowing their hair. "Well, you kind of did. Remember yesterday when you said that you weren't interested in guys?" Another silence.

...

"What! How could you tell people that I was gay! I'm not and now every guy in Konoha is going to think I am. Ugh... how could you?" Her voice was loud and even though I left it out, it was also quite colourful. The girl's eyes were narrowed at the others, who looked at each other fearfully. "Sorry. I shouldn't have yelled. I guess I'm kind of in shock... But now that it's been cleared up..."

"Sorry, Suzume. I just... don't think that we should be friends anymore," said Mai. The brunette looked at the blonde in disbelief. "You're just too different." Ayame nodded.

"What? No, I'll do anything. I'll change my clothes and my hair and I'll spend my time with you," her words pleaded. The girls just stared at her with indifferent eyes. "Mai, Ayame?" The two girls looked away from her, their eyes downcast. "Itsuko?" The green haired girl looked up at her with soft golden eyes.

They stared at each other, the memories flashing in their minds, the good times and the bad. Everything they had been through and every emotion that they had shared coursed through their veins.

A dagger went through the heart of their friendship. Itsuko turned away from Suzume, "Let's go, girls." And without looking back, the three left their former friend behind. All. Alone.

* * *

The open window allowed the chilly air into the room but Suzume didn't care. The moon shone brightly in the sky, giving the only light that she had. Her bare legs were held close to her chest, her arms wrapped around them to hold them in place. A single tear rolled down her cheek, warm and salty.

Her nails dug into her soft flesh as she sobbed to herself, letting it all out. After all they had been through, was it that easy to just let go of it all and forget about the one who had been your best friend for over half your life? Was it possible to be so cruel?

The blankets on the bed offered no comfort to the girl, laying lifeless on the mattress. Goosebumps raised on her skin as another breeze drifted in. Her breath came out uneasily, her chest moving in and out in short erratic movements.

"How could you do this to me?" she whispered. "I was your friend. We've shared so much together and now... now... you abandon me over nothing. Is it my fault...?" Gently, she wiped the tears from her eyes, sniffling slightly.

And in a slow, pained voice... she began to sing.

_My tears run down like razor blades and no,_

_I'm not the one to blame._

_It's you or is it me?_

_And all the words we never say come out_

_And now we're all ashamed_

_And there's no sense in playing games_

_When we've done all we can do._

_But now it's over. It's over. Why is it over?_

_We had the chance to make it._

_Now it over. It's over. Why is it over?_

_I wish that I could take it back..._

_But it's over._

_I lose myself in all these fights._

_I lose my sense of wrong and right._

_I cry, I cry._

_I'm shaking from the pain that's in my head._

_I just want to crawl into my bed_

_And leave behind the life I led_

_But I won't let it die..._

She trailed off. The bed suddenly seemed so welcoming to her. Gingerly, Suzume layed her head on her pillow, the last few hiccups from her tears disappearing.

Tomorrow was a brand new day.

The thought of Sasuke came to mind when she thought about having to train and a small smile came to her face. No, not a kind smile but rather... a devious and cunning one. What was the one thing that the Uchiha lived for?

...

The answer: Revenge.

And Suzume would get her own.

How?

Why, it's simple. She would use the one thing that those girls lived for; the only thing that they ever talked about and the things that destroyed their friendship.

That night, Suzume slept with a smirk on her face.

* * *

The sun shone brightly in the large clearing of the training grounds, the birds chirping merrily in the trees. A warm breeze swept through the land, sending soft, pleasant scents into the village. Suzume's silky brown bangs were tossed with the wind, covering her reddish eyes. The kimono like shirt she wore allowed the air to travel through quite nicely, brushing against her pale skin ever so slightly.

Onyx eyes looked up to meet hers, making a miniscule smile form on her lips. She stood tall in front of him as he sat, back against a tree, his head tilted so that he can see her delicate features. His eyes surveyed her expression with careful consideration. When she noticed, her smile grew slightly wider. The boy raised an eyebrow at her.

"So when's our date?" the brunette inquired sweetly.

Sasuke's face contorted in confusion. "What?"

Suzume gave him a toothy grin. "You know, the one you promised me."

He put on a thoughtful face before answering, "Nope. I don't seem to recall that."

Her expression changed to an annoyed one. "You little liar. It was yesterday or can the great Uchiha not remember that far back?" The boy said nothing. "It was **supposed** to be with one of my friends or should I say **ex**-friends. But I decided that I want the date instead."

"**You** want the date? Why?" he asked with an eyebrow raised.

"Because I'm totally in love with you," she smiled, making him roll his eyes. "No, because I want revenge on the little bitches who told everyone that I'm a lesbian when I'm not."

"You're not?"

...

By some unknown force or power within her, she managed to gain enough courage to do something so dangerous... She smacked him upside the head. He sent a glare to her and all she did was stick out her tongue. "No, I'm not. I can't believe that even **you** thought it was true. Great... now I'm going to be dateless for the rest of my life."

"No, you're not," Sasuke told her. What is this? Encouraging words from the Emo Prince? "I thought we were going on a date." A small smirk played on his face.

"Oh... you're tricky. So when are we going?" Suzume sat down in front of the Uchiha, her legs crossed in front of her. She leaned forward attentively, resting her chin on her hand. "Today, tomorrow? I'd say that we'd have to go at 7-ish because then people will know that it's a date."

"So how is this revenge?"

Suzume scoffed at him. "Well, they all have a crush on you so if they find out that I'm dating you then they'll be super pissed off. And then they'll probably try to come after me or something but I could kick their asses any day."

The boy stared blankly for a moment. "Hm... good enough for me. So tonight at 7:00. I guess we could meet down by the academy."

"That's perfect! They always hang out by the academy so they'll definitely see us. Oh and by the way, this means that we're dating. And when I say dating I mean that you're my boyfriend and I'm your girlfriend. No cheating."

Sasuke frowned at her. "I never agreed to that."

"Yeah, but if you ever want to fight me again, then you **have**to," the brunette mumbled coyly. He glared at her but didn't seem to argue. "Great then! I can't wait to tell Sakura."

"Whatever."

"Speak of the devil."

A shrill voice pierced the silence. "**Sasuke-kun!** **I'm here!**" The pink haired girl ran up to the two, without taking much notice to the other girl. "Good morning, Sasuke-kun. Are you ready for training today?" The Uchiha stared up at her blankly. "Suzume, what are you doing here with Sasuke-kun? Go over there with your fellow bird brains!"

"Shut up, Pinky. Why don't you just go stand by the Icha Icha Paradise billboard? You'd fit right in," she snapped back.

"How original. Been taking lessons from Ino-pig?"

"You know what? Why am I even talking to you? I'm just going to go back to my conversation with your precious Sasuke-kun." Sakura glared again but Suzume took no notice. "Anyway, Sasuke, I guess we won't be able to have any more alone time. I'll see you at 7:00."

* * *

"Do you guys feel kind of bad dumping Suzume?" the green haired girl asked her friends. Her golden eyes stared at the ground, remembering the day before and the look on the brunette's face as she turned away.

"Uh, no. Not really," said Mai, flipping her blonde hair back. "She's totally a lesbian even if she says she's not. I mean, god, I can't believe that we've had sleepovers with her. She could've been totally perving behind our backs."

"Yeah..." Ayame remarked, nodding slowly. Itsuko looked up at the two. "Hey, look guys! It's Sasuke-kun." Mai immediately snapped her head in that direction. "He's just standing there. Maybe he's waiting for someone..."

Mai glared at the platinum blonde girl. "Yeah right. He's not waiting for a girl at least. Maybe he's waiting for that one Naruto kid. Maybe they're going to fight..."

"Suzu-chan?" Itsuko exclaimed. The girls all hid behind a tree.

* * *

"Oh gosh, they totally saw me," Suzume muttered to Sasuke. "They totally suck at spying. No wonder they failed the ninja test."

"No shit. So where should we go?" he asked her in a nonchalant tone.

She thought for a moment before smirking. "Let's hang out here for a while. Maybe they'll try something." Sasuke nodded and sat down against the big tree in front of the building. Suzume took her place on the swing, rocking back and forth.

The girls behind the tree whispered to each other. They obviously weren't cut out for the whole ninja business. "They're so obvious. It's actually quite painful."

"Tell me about it," he replied. "So what are you going to do to freak them out?" Suzume pretended to think for a moment but it was clear in her mind what exactly she wanted to do.

She looked at the ground sheepishly, "Well, I doubt that you would let me."

He sighed in exasperation. "What is it?"

"Oh, I think you know."

He was silent for a moment of contemplation. "Ah, just don't spread it around..." he grumbled, standing up. Suzume nodded for a minute.

Then her eyes widened. "Wait, what did you mean by-" Her words were cut off when his lips crashed onto hers. Although it caught her off guard, her reddish eyes closed and instinct took over. Her hands held onto his shoulders, with his on her back, as she struggled to stay on the swing.

The feeling that somebody was watching took over, causing her to pull back, still holding on to prevent the embarrassing fall.

"Um... wow, that was... uh... interesting?" the words slithered out of her mouth, slurred and dreamy. His eyes still bored into hers, though not as intense. "Uhm..." she began but was interrupted by the sound of a large object thudding against the ground.

They both looked over to see the three girls who were supposed to be 'hiding', lying sprawled out on the ground, unconcious. Suzume snickered at them before standing and walking over to where their bodies lay. "Poor poor you. I hope that you don't find any spiders..." she whispered, taking out a small box of arachnids and placing them in the hair of her enemies.

A satisfied smile graced her face as Sasuke shook his head at her. His fingers wrapped around hers, tugging lightly for her to follow. They began to walk away but as soon as they turned the corner, several screams pierced the night air.

"**SUZUME! WE'RE GOING TO KILL YOU!"**

The girl started running, dragging the boy with her, both of them laughing. "C'mon Sasuke, run faster!" the brunette shouted to him, still pulling him along. "Oh shit, they're coming!" she yelled again, looking back. The two ran down the street, ducking into alleys to escape their pursuers. After countless garbage cans and fences, finally, the teens got away.

They stopped to catch their breath in an alley. Suzume was bent over, breathing heavy while trying not to laugh. "Ho...ly... Crap," the girl breathed. "That was so funny!"

"I'm not even going to ask where you got those spiders from. Poisonous?"

She looked at Sasuke like he was crazy. "Are you crazy? I want to scare them, not kill them!"

He shrugged, "I would've used something poisonous. It's not like it can be traced... that fast."

Again, she looked at him like he was psycho, which he was, no denying that. "Whatever, I'm just glad that I got them back. It's on now." Her mind travelled back to the reason why they fainted in the first place. "Oh yeah..."

He looked up at her. "You kissed me!" she shouted, pointing at him. A few people looked over.

"Shut up!" he whisper/shouted back. "Do you want the whole world to hear you? I told you not to spread it around." He crossed his arms.

"Ah, but we're dating, remember?" She gave him a crooked smile.

"Che... whatever. But that's never going to happen again," he muttered, shoving his hands into his pockets and walking off. She followed.

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean, I'm never going to kiss you again. It's disgusting."

Her jaw dropped. "Disgusting? Well, you're not so great either..."

"Says the one who was dazed." He opened his eyes to look at her and smirked. She had no reply. It was true. She **was** dazed. "Yeah, see? I'm going home now."

Suzume rushed to stand in front of him. "Not going to walk me home?"

"Chivalry is dead," he told her as he walked off. What an idiot.

* * *

**I apologize for the Secondhand Serenade but they've been in my head so... I had to!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Two updates in two days? :o**

**BTW, I suck at fight scenes but they are essential even in the most shoujo of mangas and fanfics.**

**And because this is Naruto, I definitely need them.**

* * *

**Chapter 6**

Suzume sat in the grass of the training grounds, the tension running high. Today was the day that her and Sasuke were supposed to face off. This could be bad. He glared at her from his place against the tree while Sakura continued to try to get his attention. Naruto paced impatiently as Kakashi had yet to show up.

The day was of a moderate temperature and was a nice day for relaxing, unfortunately, also a nice day for fighting. She looked up to see Sasuke still glaring. "You're pleasant, aren't you?" she asked sarcastically. The boy said nothing.

It was another few hours before Kakashi showed up and Sasuke's patience was wearing thin. "You're late," he hissed. "Let's start. Right. Now." He stood quickly and moved centre field. Suzume felt and impending doom as she walked about ten feet away from him. His cold eyes bored into hers.

"Any objections?" Kakashi asked the both of them.

"I object!" the brunette shouted, waterfall tears streaming down her cheeks. "**KOWAII!**"

The silver haired man ignored her protests. "Fight."

Immediately, Sasuke rushed in with his Sharingan turned on. He brought his fist back and used the force of his strides to punch her in the face. Needless to say, she slid back several metres, crashing into a tree. "Ow..." she groaned, sitting up from the wreckage. Before she could even get herself together, a kick was sent into her stomach.

Suzume doubled over in pain, a few splatters of blood flying from her mouth. The three on the sidelines looked at each other with uncertainty. Naruto spoke up. "Teme! Don't go too far with this...!"

"Shut up!" the Uchiha shouted, hitting his opponent into another innocent tree. "Get serious."

The brunette looked up at him and wiped the blood from her chin. She stood shakily at first but then gained her balance. "Fine..." He smirked then took position. She also took position.

This time, when he ran toward her, she dodged all of his attacks. She threw a punch to the head which he dodged as well, knocking her off her feet. She fell hard onto her side but didn't stop as she had to roll to avoid the kunai being launched at her. Sasuke was going hardcore for this one. He pinned her with his weapons and jumped into the air, doing quick hand signs. A jutsu.

A huge stream of fire came from his mouth, also a violation of the 'strictly taijutsu' rule. Kakashi was just about to cut in when he saw that Suzume was in a bubble of water, shielded from the scorching heat. The boy growled.

Within seconds, she appeared behind him and kicked him in the back, sending him into a tree. "It's my turn now." She literally threw him into the lake, running onto the surface of the water, making hand signs. She made sure that he couldn't copy them.

Before she could finish her jutsu, she found herself constricted. "That's enough, you two." Kakashi dragged her back while Sasuke got out of the water. Their team mates were in shock of how far they had taken it. "While impressive, that was absolutely stupid. I think you two need to learn to get along or deal with this a different way. Training is over for now. Sasuke will treat you all to ramen as his punishment. And you, Suzume, are going to talk to me."

When the others left, Naruto cheering and Sakura trying to suck up to Sasuke, their sensei gave the brunette a very serious stare. He watched as she averted her eyes from left to right and then down. "Sensei...?"

"You were about to put him into a water prison. That's a highly skilled jutsu. Can you really do that?"

Suzume looked up at him. "Yes... I can. It takes a lot of chakra though and Haku said I could only use it because my chakra element was water. I figured that it could be useful in a sticky situation."

Kakashi looked at the sky. "It can be. But look, I don't want you to use those kinds of jutsu unless absolutely necessary. It's best to keep your abilities hidden, especially from those who might want want to use you..." he trailed off.

"Why would anyone want to use me, Sensei...?"

His eye travelled back to her before closing. "It's nothing. You're just... more special than you think you are." And with that, he walked away leaving her completely puzzled.

...

"Oh yes, much more special," said a deep voice. She whipped around to find the owner of the voice but no one was there.

"Who's there?" she called out, pulling senbon between her fingers. "Come out where I can see you and I promise, there'll be no fight." Her reddish eyes searched madly for the stranger.

"Like you could beat me." There stood a man with pale skin and dark black hair. On his forehead, he wore the hitai-ate of Konoha with a scratch through it. A criminal. What really caught her attention though, were his eyes... his blood red eyes.

Pangs of undeniable fear ran through the girl as she tried to grasp her words. "Are you... Uchiha... Itachi?"

"So you've heard of me? No doubt from my brother, right?"

Her limbs started shaking as her fears were confirmed. Her grip on the senbon tightened and her eyes grew wide. "Itachi, you're scaring the poor girl." The loud voice came from another strange man. He very closely resembled a shark and from what she could tell, there was a **huge** sword on his back. "Oops. I think I made her wet her pants."

She feigned confidence. "What are you doing here? You don't need to be here!" Her glare was just strong enough to make Itachi raise an eyebrow.

The blue man laughed. "She's a brave one. Too bad she's walking on eggshells." His smile revealed his all too sharp teeth. He jumped forward and kicked her in the stomach, sending her flying. She crashed through two trees before getting up again. "Strong, eh?"

Pain wracked her whole body but she would never let them know it. "Get out..." The man went to attack again but this time she dodged. Attack after attack, she never let him touch her. Itachi stood behind, watching carefully. The girl sent several senbon into the man, making him hiss slightly.

It was then when he pulled out his sword and instead of cutting her, whacked her with it. She fell to her knees, panting. This was the end. This was the last time she would ever see daylight and she was sure of it. "Enough Kisame."

She faintly heard footsteps coming toward her. The younger man bent down, tilting her head up to look her in the eyes. The red sharingan was all too tempting to look at. A genjutsu would come for sure. "I want you to be my subordinate."

Her eyes widened once more. "What?"

"You will train under me. In secret. You have... potential to be something much greater than you are now. It will be your job to keep this a secret." Being daring, she looked at him like he had two heads.

"Why would you want to help someone like **me**?"

"Again, you have potential. Now I don't expect you to refuse. Meet me here tonight at midnight. Be late and be punished." He stood, leaving a confused Suzume behind.

* * *

Suzume showed up exactly on time, afraid to be even a second too late. Itachi sat there, cloakless, wearing a black outfit. "Right on time. Impressive. You can follow orders exactly the way they were given."

"Thank you... sensei?" she replied, unsure of what to call him.

"Address me how you want." He stood up and looked at her with his black eyes. It was much more comforting than his sharingan but not enough to actually make her feel comfortable. To tell the truth, she was scared shetless.

The night was dark and the only moon was the only light they could see. The trees casted an unpleasant shade in the grounds. It made everything seem more lifeless than it was. Itachi stood straight, waiting for her attack.

The girl took a deep breath and took position.

This was the beginning of something she knew would come back to bite her in the ass.

* * *

"Now we have a problem," Kakashi began. "The Chuunin Exams only permits a team of three to enter and any more than that is unacceptable." His eyes scanned his genin team. "This means that one of you won't be able to participate."

"Not me!" Naruto shouted. "I've worked way too hard for this!" Sasuke nodded his head in agreement.

"You can't make me drop out," he told the team.

All attention was turned toward the girls. "Hey, don't look at me. I'm not dropping out," Sakura said back. Suzume said nothing.

Kakashi stared at her as she looked at her team mates. "Suzume?"

"What am I supposed to say? I guess I'm dropping out." She just shrugged her shoulders. It wasn't as if she really **needed**to become a chuunin. That way, if she wasn't in the exam, she could have a lot more time to plan revenge on the Kabuki guy. He hurt Konohamaru.

"You can't drop out," Sasuke told her. They all looked at him in mild surprise. "You're an essential part of the team and... I want to be able to fight you again."

The brunette just laughed. "So that's why. You know that if you really want to fight, all you have to do is ask... or force me."

"And what about Sakura-chan? She wants to be in the exams too!" Naruto added in.

"Exactly. So you guys can go and I can train on my own. I'm very capable of making it without you guys." She gave them a small smile and flashed the peace sign. "Give them the passes, Sensei. I don't think I'm ready for the exams anyway."

The man looked at her. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah yeah." She stood up, bid them farewell and walked away. But as soon as she turned, a frown made its way onto her face. She had been waiting a very long time to get into these exams.

So why didn't she fight for her spot?

Well, because Itachi told her to skip the exams that's why. He said that they would have a lot more time to train because everyone would be preoccupied to notice him. This slightly disturbed Suzume because she already spent almost all of her free time with him, training harder than ever. By the time she was done with this, she'd be dead.

When she reached the town, the girl had nothing to do but walk around. "I heard that one of you is going to have to drop out of the exams," said a high pitched voice.

"Yeah," the girl replied to her younger sister.

"Who's it going to be? That pink haired girl?" Hidemi continued.

Reddish eyes glanced over at her. "No, I dropped out."

"You what?" the young girl shouted, standing in front of her. "This is an amazing opportunity! How could you pass it up?"

"Easily. Besides, this'll give me more time to train alone," she explained. "Isn't it just easier like that? I'm really in no rush."

Hidemi pursed her lips. "I know but Otou-san won't like that very much."

"Who gives a rat's ass what he thinks?" she snapped.

The younger girl jumped. "Sorry, just saying. Well, I think that you'll do fine with whatever you decide. But... why do you want to train alone? You're always alone." The brunette said nothing. "Why don't I train with you? We can have sisterly bonding time."

"No!" exclaimed the older girl. That was like a slap in the face to Hidemi. She could tell that the girl tried to hide her hurt look. "I mean... we can have bonding time, just not training. Why don't we go see a movie or something?"

The girl's face lit up like Christmas lights when she heard it. "Sure! And then we can go shopping and we can mess around with boys!"

Suzume's eyes widened. "How old are you again? Mess around with boys?"

"Shut up. I'm eleven, so I'm allowed to like boys. I'm not a child," replied the other, nose stuck up in the air.

It made a chuckle come out of Suzume's mouth. This was probably the most they had ever spoken to each other that didn't end up in something mean being said. It actually pleased her a lot to be getting along with her sister. "If you haven't hit puberty, you're still a child," she added, sticking out her tongue.

Just then, they heard loud laughing coming from a certain group of girls. Immediately, her cheery mood disappeared. Of course, they noticed her but turned away from her when Mai found something a whole lot more interesting.

The blonde went over to the Uchiha, swaying her hips as she walked. He stared blankly at her until she began to talk to him. Suzume couldn't hear what they were saying but she knew by the way that Mai was touching his arm, she was flirting like hell.

A rage built up inside of the girl when she saw the way that her enemy had him up against the wall. The other girls giggled to each other, also mocking their old friend. Mai whispered things to him, her hips up against his, moving slightly to aid seduction. It was the most disgusting thing that Suzume had ever seen.

But the worst came when the blonde pressed her pretty pink lips against his. Her body was almost shaking in anger as her glare intensified. Apparently, her sister noticed. "Do you like him?"

"No. Well, kind of but that's not the point. She's totally using him!" The brunette couldn't even control herself anymore. She stormed right up to the blonde and ripped her off of him. The other girls rushed to her aid. Sasuke seemed more stunned than anything.

"Ahh, Suzume! What the hell was that for?" Itsuko yelled.

"What the hell do you think it was for? Paws **OFF!**" she retorted quickly. Her arms wrapped around the boy as if she were claiming her property, glaring at the girls who stood before them. He made no move to push her off. "He's **mine**," she growled viciously.

Mai just glared back. "Not. For. Long. C'mon girls, it just got crowded." She snapped her fingers and the rest followed her angry strut.

Suzume gave a sigh of relief. "You know, you can let go now..." Sasuke muttered.

"Oh yeah." She quickly released him. "Sorry, just thought that you needed help... unless you actually did like that..."

"No, I hate girls like that. They're so pushy. It's stupid. Dating is stupid. I mean, what are the chances of marrying someone you date now?"

Her reddish eyes made contact with his. "That's true," she said quietly, looking to the ground. "Dating is kind of fun though... It doesn't really have to be serious. Just... I don't know... fun." She looked back up.

"Che... whatever." It was silent for a few moments before he spoke again, changing the topic. "Why did you drop out?"

"Because I think it would be better to just train by myself. Geez, do you need to hear it over and over again?" She made an annoyed expression.

"No. I was just trying to make conversation but fine, I won't." He turned to walk away when she grabbed his wrist, pulling him back.

"No! I mean... uh... just hang out for a bit."

A splash of wetness dropped onto her nose. And then another and another and another. Soon, there was a heavy rain all over Konoha. "What the..." Sasuke muttered. A few minutes ago, there wasn't a cloud in the sky and now it was raining like in biblical times.

"Crap..." she cursed. "I guess we should go then, right?"

Sasuke said nothing but turned to walk away. Again, she grabbed his wrist and pulled him back. He gave her an irritated look but she ignored it. And once more, nobody was around to see it but the little Uchiha gave into his soft side when their lips met. The kiss was a few seconds long, still surprising him.

"You are mine... aren't you?" her voice asked softly, muffled by the rain.

* * *

**:O**

**Next one will be what Suzume does during the Chuunin exams.**

**Plus, you get to find out what happened after the rain scene! :D**


	7. Chapter 7

**Yeah, so finally, sorry it's not really good because it's exam time so I have to study. :P**

* * *

**Chapter 7**

Suzume awoke in an unfamilar place. It was dark and quiet, without a single soul in sight. She sat up from the bed, warm and soft, and took a look around the room. She couldn't see anything that would determine where she was. Well, there wasn't... until she looked down. "Okay, these definitely aren't my clothes..." she said to herself.

"They're mine," said a deep voice. She looked up to see none other than her team mate, Uchiha Sasuke. Her eyes widened in realization. This was **his** house and this was **his** bed and she was **in** his bed.

"What the hell happened?" She rushed up and almost fell right onto the floor.

"What do you mean 'what happened?' How could you forget?" he looked at her like she was stupid... which he pretty much thought she was.

"F-forget what?" she stuttered, slightly afraid to hear the answer.

He shot her a confused look. "The sex?"

All colour drained from her face as she struggled to remember. "What the...? Did you drug me or something?" There was no way that she would do that and not remember!

"What? I didn't do anything. **You** came onto **me** and I'm only human so it's not my fault I didn't refuse." He shrugged at her.

"What do you mean I came onto you? I wouldn't...!"

"This argument is pointless. You hardly made it to the house with all your clothes on," he told her.

Her eye twitched. "Liar! There's no way... I mean... oh my god!" She held her head in her hands, cursing to herself and trying to remember.

"Yeah, you're right. I am a liar. Like I would ever do anything like that with you," he scoffed.

She ran over to him and punch him in the face. Or tried. He caught her hand in the air. "You- you- **BASTARD!** How could you tell me that?"

Sasuke merely looked at her blankly before pushing her down. "You talk too loud. All you did was come here, change into something dry, and take up **my** bed. Plus you kissed me which I told you never to do and especially in public. What is it with girls? Can't they just listen?"

"What-ever. That's the most I've ever heard you speak and yet, it's all critical. You're such a jerk, you know that?"

"Yes." A smug smirk plastered itself onto his face. "Now get out of my house. You're disturbing my peace."

The brunette gathered up her clothes quickly, cursing him every step of the way. "I'll be glad to leave. Geez, make sure you're not so bitchy tomorrow. Everyone will like it better and that way, I don't have to kick you in the balls."

"Whatever..."

* * *

"Do you want me to give you back your clothes?" Suzume asked the Uchiha. The other two of their team mates looked up in confusion. It was the first day of the Chuunin exams and the girl figured that she might as well wish them good luck.

"What do you mean by that?" Sakura answered for him. Sasuke was giving her a look that showed that he really didn't want her to be asking that at the moment. Like she cared.

"So do you want them back?" she looked at him expectantly. "I can give them back the next time I'm over. It's the least I could do if you were nice enough to lend me them."

"What does she mean, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura cut in once more. Naruto looked just as confused.

"Oh, nothing. I just stayed over at his house," replied the brunette calmly. The pink haired girl's face twisted in pure horror.

"N-no! You couldn't have!" she shouted hysterically. "He's mine and not yours! Only I could stay over!"

The other rolled her eyes and looked back at Sasuke. "Well...?"

"Give them back when you can. I don't really care," he said nonchalantly.

"And... I'm kind of sorry for freaking out on you. It... might not happen again," she confessed with a smile. "Anyway, I'm just here to say good luck so... good luck!"

"Thanks Suzu-chan! I wish you could be with us too." Naruto hugged her gratefully.

"I say good riddence." Sakura glared at her.

Of course, Sasuke said nothing. "I'm sure you'll all do fine. I'll see you when I can." Her lips curved up into a happy smile.

"We got to go now but we'll see you," Naruto said, looking at a clock.

"Okay." The girl stood slightly on her tippy toes and put her hands on Sasuke's shoulders. Why he was letting her kiss him again was a mystery. Boy, was Sakura shocked and appalled. It lasted less than a second before the boy pulled away. A strange feeling came to the pit of her stomach as he did this. It felt like rejection. Sakura smiled triumphantly. "S-see you later..." she whispered quietly, the feeling still sinking in, showing on her face.

She turned and walked away, trying to stop her eyes from watering but failing miserably. Sure, there was no doubt that she liked him but not **that** much. He wasn't worth crying over... or at least that's what she tried to tell herself. "He's definitely... not worth it. Not worth it... ugh..." she groaned to herself.

"Boy troubles?" Itachi asked her as he leaned against a tree. Suzume looked around to find herself deep within a forest.

"What? How did-?"

"How did you get here or how did I know about your love life?"

"Both?" He just gave her a small smirk and told her to follow.

"Now since the Chuunin exams have begun, we can begin to get into the more complicated things and perfect your form. This is where the real training begins." He looked back at her to make sure she was still following.

"Where are we going?" the brunette asked him, not familiar with her settings.

"Travelling. I created an illusion of you to tell the Hokage of your journey. Now all of Konoha will think that you are off to train by yourself and find inner peace. But really, you're going to meet some of the Akatsuki. It will be harsh but you will learn to accept it. Nothing in life is easy."

"Wait, so I'm not going back?"

"Precisely. That's not a problem, is it?" He whipped around to face her, the devil's eyes meeting her own. "Perhaps, you've grown a little too attached to my baby brother?"

Suzume shook her head wildly in fear. "N-no! Just asking!"

His glared remained for a few seconds before his body shook. It was the first time that she had seen Itachi laugh and for some reason, it didn't scare her. It wasn't the type of laugh you would expect from somebody like him. It had no traces of evil in it and in fact, it was quite light. "You're so naive. Did you really think I would spurn you for getting close to my brother? In the end, the result will be the same."

The girl blinked in confusion. "What do you mean by that, sensei?"

"Nothing. Just... rambling." He looked at her once more before continuing their journey.

"So... what is Akatsuki like?"

"Kid, you don't even want to know..."

* * *

The two of them travelled for five days, stopping in the nights for rest, even if they didn't really need it. The woods were apparently too dangerous when there wasn't any light. Too dangerous for Suzume, at least.

"Where's your partner?" the girl asked, poking at the fire with a large stick. "Aren't you guys supposed to travel in pairs?"

"Is this not a pair?" the man replied, watching the stars in the sky. He looked back to her, the firelight illuminating his dark eyes. "He'll meet us at a rendezvous point. It's going to take longer if we only move during the day."

"So why don't we just go now?" she asked quickly. "I'm not even tired."

"It doesn't matter. There are too many things that go bump in the night." His voice was eerily hushed when he spoke those words and he moved his gaze to the side.

Fear built up inside of her. "A-are you saying...?"

"Yes, enemy ninja," he finished for her. Suzume fell backward in surprise.

"Geez, sensei! Did you have to make it sound so scary?" the girl shouted. "I thought you were talking about some kind of ghost-thing!"

Itachi just chuckled at her before lying down to go to sleep. She silently doused the fire with a light water jutsu and layed against a tree, still looking at the starlit sky. She wondered how the Chuunin exam was going and whether or not her team had made it past the first event.

"Probably," she whispered to herself. "They couldn't fail. They refuse to fail..."

* * *

"Ah, I didn't think the kid would make it. I figured you would just toss her to the dogs," Kisame laughed to his stoic partner. Or would-be stoic partner.

Itachi was supposed to be cold and cruel to everyone but it seems like that was wrong. He was never really mean to her or to Kisame and he did talk even when not spoken to. Then again, he was never really nice.

"Che, whatever. Stupid fish!" she yelled at him.

"Oh? What are you going to do about it, shrimp?" he growled, leaning in close to her face. Usually, something like that would scare her but the girl knew that Itachi would never let Kisame kill his student.

She stuck her tongue out at him. His hand rushed to his sword, a vicious killer expression on his face. "Enough," came the Uchiha's commanding voice. "Let's move."

Suzume gave the shark man one last triumphant look before following her sensei. Did Kisame really think that he could beat her in an 'Itachi likes me better contest'? She was his **mentee**, and Kisame is just some guy that he's **forced** to work with.

They walked through forest for hours and it was really starting to get on her nerves. "Are we there yet?" Itachi turned his head back but kept walking, not answering her question.

"Does it look like we're there yet?" shark-man asked her, irritated. "Look, kid, if you say one more word, you're going to be shredded, got it?"

Suzume put on a bitter expression and looked to the side, muttering profanities. Kisame smirked in triumph but as soon as he turned she stuck out her tongue and gave him the finger. Itachi chuckled slightly.

Ten more minutes passed.

"Are we there yet?"

"Not yet..." the blue guy told her, trying to keep his cool.

"What about now?"

"No."

"Now?"

"No."

The girl huffed and crossed her arms, walking heavily. "Now?"

"Yes."

"Really?"

"No."

"Oh... now?"

"No."

(You know, this is going to go on for a long time...)

* * *

"Are we there **now?**" she asked again. They'd been walking for days and she was beginning to get tired. Wait, never mind, she was almost about to drop dead. Not once had they stopped for rest, but only for food and water.

Kisame turned around. "No."

"Well, when **are** we going to get there?"

"NEVER!" he shouted back angrily. "We've been walking for days and you keep asking that damn question. You know what? We're never going to get there! **You're **never going to get there and you know why? Because I'm going to **eat** you! That's right! I'm going to tear you into little bits and make sure that you can never utter another godforsaken word again!"

Both Itachi and Suzume stopped to look at the man, who looked like he had been locked up in Chinese Water Torture for months.

"We're here," said the younger man, still looking at his partner with emotionless eyes.

"Crazy..." muttered the girl, following her sensei. She walked beside him, studying his face. She couldn't find out much because really... it was Uchiha Itachi. "Um... do the Akatsuki like... actually get together somewhere or something? Do you guys like... hang out?" The question had been bugging her ever since she was told where they were going.

"No. We don't 'hang out' nor do we ever really see each other," he replied.

"So then how am I-"

"Don't interrupt. I've made special arrangements with a few members. They will help train you while I am away." The man stood in the middle of a small clearing, looking up to the sky. "They will be here soon... but for now, we will continue your training."

Suzume nodded, "Are we going to fight?"

"No, not right now. I want you to try something," he told her, showing her a combination of hand signs, slow enough for her to copy. "Then build up chakra in your lungs and blow it all out."

The brunette closed her eyes for a moment of concentration before carefully making the hand signs. Not exactly sure how to make chakra go to the lungs, she went with what she thought was right and blew. Kisame guaffed when nothing happened, making her face turned bright red.

Itachi hushed the other man. "It's as I thought. You're not ready yet."

"Ready, sensei?" she inquired, tilting her head to the side. "What was supposed to happen?"

"You'll know when you can do it," he smirked. The girl frowned slightly, inwarly cursing how mysterious her teacher could be.

* * *

**Okay, blah. I must say, I hate having scenes with Itachi in them because I'm afraid I'm going to make him out of character. So I might skip all of that. What do you think?**


	8. Chapter 8

**Okay, so this is really short but I mostly cut it so that I could show you the picture I just drew of Suzume (pre-mist thing).**

**Go to: photobucket (DOT) com /guestlogin?albumUrl=.com/albums/ii52/NotoriousNarutard/**

**The password is: TheSparrow**

**Enjoy and please comment here about anything else you want to know, see, or whatever. My exams are ending very soon so I'm going to have a lot of time on my hands. The only reason I've been doing all this is because I know that I have fans. It makes me so happy! 3**

* * *

**Chapter 8**

"Sensei, can we stop now?" panted the young brunette. "I'm tired and we've been training all day. Can't I have a little break now?" Her eyes looked pleadingly at the man standing before her. He shut his eyes and sighed before nodding slightly. Suzume was amazed that it actually worked but instead of being in shock, she fell onto the ground, staring up at the blue sky.

She squinted as the suns rays entered her vision. It was hot. Very hot. She had already asked Itachi several times for a break but each time he said no. It's not like he knew it was that hot, he wasn't the one constantly having to move around. All he did was stand there and throw stuff at her.

She looked over at him as he sat under the shade of a tree. "Sensei?" she called out. He looked up at her, not saying a word. "Why are we doing this training? Isn't it a little repetitive? I mean, all you do is throw weapons and stuff so how am I going to work on my fighting skills or my jutsu?"

He gave another sigh. "You know, there's not only one side in a battle." His reply was vague and left her confused, furrowing her eyebrows. "An army of enemy ninja are headed toward Konoha. What's the first thing the Hokage will do?"

Suzume frowned a bit, thinking about the situation. "Order our ninja to attack?" she suggested.

"Wrong. The first thing he will do is order the ninja to **defend**," he corrected, looking up to the sky. "The non-ninja and children will be taken somewhere safe while ninja are placed around the border. That way, they can come up with strategies for when they can go on the **offensive**."

The girl thought for a moment. It made sense. "Oh... I didn't think of that."

He looked at her with his dark eyes once more. "Exactly. Many young ninja forget about the defensive. If you have no defense, then your offense will fail as soon as you are hit. Learn to defend yourself and if possible, learn how to not get hit. If the enemy cannot hit you, they cannot win."

All of these things had never once came to her mind when they were training. "I see..." She wondered how she didn't realize it before. "So you wanted me to focus on dodging?"

He nodded slightly. "And if you had, there wouldn't be a scratch on you." Suzume sat up and looked at her arms and legs. Clothes and skin were torn, with little amounts of blood oozing out. She gently brushed one on her arm and winced. "You focus too much on your offensive."

And with that he said no more. It was true though, that she had been rushing in to try and force close combat. She had been trying to put **him** on the defensive without even realizing it. "So, are you saying that you want me to dodge, come up with a plan, and then try it?" she asked the man.

He furrowed his eyebrows and sighed once more. "Foolish little girl. Why would you tell your enemy exactly what you are going to do?" Realizing what she did, the brunette blushed and looked away, embarrassed by her own stupidity.

"Crap..." she muttered, trying to think about what she was going to do next. She can't come up with a sneaky plan now that she had told the guy. She sighed to herself and looked into the sky, half wondering what it was that Itachi was always looking at. The sun burned her eyes, making her look quickly away, inwardly cursing her idiocy.

She crawled over to the shaded area Itachi sat in, deciding it was too hot for her liking. She sat looking into the forest for a little while until she started feeling strangely uncomfortable. Suzume turned to see the Uchiha staring at her with blank eyes. "Sensei...?" she asked, shifting slightly. He didn't reply.

There were another few moments of awkward silence on her part until he stood up abruptly. "Let's continue."

Just as she was prepared to stand, a voice called out, "Fish is here!" Kisame walked out of the bushes holding a few fish in the air; very raw fish, still squirming.

"Yeah, we know you're here," the girl said, smirking slightly. Itachi stared at her again, with the same eyes as he did right before Kisame came. This time she brushed it off, thinking that she was imagining it.

The shark man glared at her. "You know, you little brat, I'm the one holding your only food," he snapped back.

"Fish are friends not food!" she shouted, quoting the oh-so famous line.

"You're stepping over the line, kid," he growled in a low, menacing tone. "I could kill you in a second and don't think that Itachi will stop me." He had abandoned the food on the ground and instead had his hands on his sword.

"Try it," she whispered. Within moments, Samehada was pushing into her arms, right above her head and she was desperately trying to move it. But of course, the more she struggled, the more the shaving sword took off of her. Blood streamed down her arms, the wounds stinging unbearably.

"Had enough?" the man asked her, pushing down even harder. She groaned in pain. He lifted his foot and kicked her across the clearing, smashing her into a tree. She fell onto the ground on her hands and knees, coughing up blood.

Kisame was stronger and faster than expected. She rolled and barely dodged the sword again. Suzume scrambled to her feet and jumped backward, just in time. The blade smashed into the ground, creating a large crater. The girl let out a breath of relief and glanced over at her sensei. The man stood there, watching the battle but made no move to intervene. His hard eyes looked at her before looking upward.

The brunette rolled to avoid the man again, the fear of death finally catching up to her. It didn't look like Itachi was going to save her this time. Suddenly, the thought of the Uchiha brought back his words earlier in the day.

It was then that Suzume realized what she was supposed to do. "I can't be killed if I can't be hit," she mumbled to herself, moving away from the blue man again. She continued to dance around him as he attempted to destroy her in his blind rage. Picking up speed, she rushed around him, dust flying up behind her.

A circle of dust surrounded the man as he looked around with his piercing eyes, trying to locate her position. The girl leaped up behind him to kick his back but he turned swiftly and met her foot with Samehada, throwing her back. She smiled to herself as the tag she planted on the sword burned up and exploded.

"Good try," jeered a voice behind her. Her roan red eyes looked back to see the sharp teeth of the missing ninja. His sword cut into the girl's small frame, tearing her apart. Water escaped everywhere. Before Kisame could even react, his sword was out of his hands and he was encased in blue.

Suzume breathed harshly, trying to concentrate on keeping up the water prison that the shark man was trapped in. She looked up to her sensei to see a slight smile on his face. It surprised her so much that her chakra went haywire and her jutsu was released.

"That's it for now," the Uchiha said to them, the smile now nonexistent. She could have sworn that it was a trick of the light. Kisame was still in shock when he walked away, sulking slightly at his loss to a genin. "You underestimated her, Kisame. You should have known better."

"Yeah yeah," he muttered bitterly, picking up the fish.

The brunette collapsed on the ground, panting. Even though it was probably luck, she couldn't help but feel a little bit proud of herself.

* * *

**Again, short I know but sorry. And about Itachi being all OOC, I did that on purpose.**

**I'm going with what I know from the Naruto manga so if you haven't read that then you won't understand it but that doesn't really matter.**

**Just letting you know.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Okay, Party Time! I won't skip Itachi and Kisame because you guys want it oh so badly. :P**

**By the way, I'm going from what I know in the manga so even though it might seem way OOC, it's not _that_ bad. Oh well.**

**MICHAEL JACKSON! I was so mortified when I found out, five minutes after anything about it was posted on the internet. He can't DIE!**

* * *

**Chapter 9**

It was a few days later when Itachi said that he was going to go see what happened to their comrades. They were to have already been there and yet there was no sign. To Suzume, it was kind of a relief to have him leave as often times, the man would give her these really strange stares. Otherwise, he would have been his normal self.

Unfortunately for her, this meant that she would be stuck with Kisame for the next little while. He was instructed to train her to the best of his ability.

"Okay, brat, let's get to the point," he started, smirking at her. "You have a water affinity so it only makes sense that I, a very skilled water user, should train you." She rolled her eyes at him as he continued to build himself up. He noticed her and glared. "You don't believe me?"

"Oh, I believe you. But you're still not as good as Itachi-sensei," she said bluntly, giving him a smug look. He merely growled slightly at her, in an attempt to brush off her words. "In fact, I beat you didn't I?"

"You got lucky for a moment," he told her, still glaring. "It won't happen again."

She rolled her eyes and returned his stare. "Why don't we just not do anything at all?" she suggested, averting her gaze to the side. "I mean, I don't want to be near you and you don't want to be near me so why should we even bother?"

"Do you want to get stronger or what? Because if not, then I get to kill you to make sure nothing about Akatsuki gets out. How would you like that?" The man gave her a knowing smirk as he paled slightly.

"F-fine. Let's just get this over with," she muttered, looking to the ground.

"Okay, I'm going to teach you a technique that'll go pretty good with taijutsu. That seems to be your forte," he explained. Suzume nodded in understanding. She did use taijutsu pretty often as it didn't usually exert much energy. "It shouldn't be too hard for you to use, as long as you can continually focus your chakra while also thinking of something else."

"So in short, if I can multitask, this should be pretty easy?"

"I guess you're not so dumb after all," he said while snickering slightly. She glared but in a more playful way than usual. After a minute he straightened himself out. "So you think you can do it or not?"

Truth be told, Suzume was terrible at multitasking. She was clumsy and rough around the edges. She was also very easily shaken, as one could probably tell if they knew what really happened with the whole Haku and Zabuza thing. "Che, of course I can do it. Piece of cake," she said confidently. Or fake-confidently.

"Okay then. The technique I'm going to teach you is simply called 'water sword'. It's pretty self explanatory, eh?"

"A sword made of water, huh?"

He nodded slightly. "Even though it's not generally a strong technique, it doesn't have to be. If you use it in the right way, then you could win many fights." He paused to make sure she took that in, obviously in the mindset that she was an idiot.

"I got it!" she snapped, waiting for him to move on. "I'm not a freakin' idiot so hurry the hell up!"

"Sheesh, this is what I get for agreeing to train you?" The smirk on his face grew slightly as she growled at him. "Anyway... you don't need any hand signs for this so forget about memorizing anything. All you have to do is focus your chakra to draw the water from around you to your hand. But you have to make sure that it's sharp enough to actually get water, whether it's from the air or the ground."

He looked around for a little bit, motioning for her to be quiet. "It looks like there's a small river nearby. Good, so this should be easy. Because you don't have to change the state of the water any when it's already a liquid, it's a lot easier to collect. It's a little bit hard when it's in a gaseous form. It's impossible to do when it's ice so keep that in mind. In fact, you should get Itachi to teach you one of his clan's fire techniques. That way, if you run into an ice problem, you can melt it and use it for water."

The girl nodded. "But if it's vapour, how do I change it to a liquid again?" she asked, furrowing her eyebrows.

"Leave that for another time," the man replied. "Anyway, once you've got the water starting to be drawn toward your chakra, you should start to compress it until it begins to resemble something of a solid, but not ice. Draw it in as close as possible." He stuck out his hand and within seconds a blue sword materialized. It seemed as though it grew out from his hand.

Suzume looked stunned, her mouth open and he eyes wide. He must have noticed because his sharp teeth came proudly into view. "So that's what it should look like?" she asked, just to confirm. It was an amazing technique and yet he did it so easily. The girl was unsure that she could do it properly.

"Yeah, and as you can see, it's pretty sturdy," he answered, throwing it into a tree with a resounding thud. The only part you could see of it was the handle. He looked back at her with a more serious face. "You think you can do it?"

She gave a curt nod, determination dancing in her eyes. She would do it. She was sure of it. Kisame looked at her amused, a smile coming to his face. "Then let's get started."

* * *

She sat on the ground, panting harshly but a small smile still made its way onto her face. For days, Suzume had been slaving away at the new jutsu, trying to get it right. It had been about two weeks since she first started. It wasn't her own will power that kept her going through that time. It was Kisame.

He wouldn't let her quit. Not that he told her that she couldn't but that she didn't want him to see ehr defeated so easily. It was the second or third day that the girl had realized the man's true motive for teaching her this technique. He wanted her to fail.

It was quite apparent that multitasking was not one of those things that she could do very well and that was the reason he picked that specific technique. He wanted her to not be able to do it and he wanted her to seem weak by giving up. She was not going to let him have that satisfaction.

Her hands twitched with fatique, her fingers wrapped around the fruits of her training. In her grasp was a sword. A light blue sword with jagged edges and a smooth handle. After two weeks of the most training she had ever done, she had finally mastered the water sword. The smile on her face grew slightly.

"Finally!" complained Kisame. "I thought that you'd be doing that forever," he told her, smirking.

Her red eyes glared at him. "Yeah right! You thought I couldn't do it," she yelled, standing and pointing her sword at him. "Well, take a look, Fishy!"

He sighed, "Geez, Itachi, why would you pick somebody so hotheaded?" She growled again. "Of course I thought you could do it. It's only a simple technique." Suzume cocked her head to the side, pointing the sword toward the ground. Kisame looked at her like she was an idiot. "Why would I try to give you something you couldn't do? Then Itachi would have to teach you water techniques himself and let me tell you, he's not that good at them."

"Because you don't like me, that's why. You wanted me to fail!" she insisted. "Why else would you give me a technique like that?"

"Idiot!" he shouted at her. "Of course I'm going to choose something difficult for you to learn. The point of teaching is to challenge your students. In fact, Itachi would have chosen something a lot harder so be lucky that you got me to teach you something like that."

The brunette frowned slightly, trying to comprehend what he meant. "Oh, so you mean that you wanted to challenge me so that I could actually learn something instead of just using the skills I already know so that I can get stronger?"

"Ugh, stop it," he shuddered. "You're making it sound like I care." He smirked at her as she glared. "I'm just doing what Itachi told me to do, kid."

"Yeah yeah, whatever," she huffed, turning away. She went to the other side of the clearing to lie down. It was nappy time for little Suzu-chan. She let out a soft sigh and thought about what was happening in Konoha.

Even though she was getting stronger by training with these Akatsuki members, Suzume desperately wanted to be in the comfort of her own bed. She wanted to be home where she could eat anything she wanted and where she could just relax and enjoy herself. Most of all, she wanted to see how her friends were doing and find out if any of them were chuunin or if they epically failed.

She decided to herself that she would ask Itachi when he got back. They could train some other time, right? Besides, she had already learned a few new things so it wouldn't have been a waste. Time with Kisame was driving her crazy and time with her own sensei scared her so completely. It would be best for her to go back, wouldn't it?

Her head felt light and her vision was going dark. She just wanted to go back home.

She just wanted to see her friends.

* * *

The walk home was long and hard, the fatigue of the past weeks finally catching up to her. When Itachi came back, he told her that she should go back due to an incident in Konoha. He hadn't been specific as to what it was but Suzume knew that it couldn't be good. If it was bad enough that Itachi **told **her to go back, then perhaps it had something to do with her family or worse... Sasuke!

The thought scared her slightly so she tried to focus on something else. Itachi walked in front of her, not saying a word, while Kisame walked beside him, looking around cautiously. The sun made sweat pour down her face but it didn't help to make it any cooler. The trees for some reason, were twisted away from the pathway, making absolutely no shade for travelers.

"Are we going to be there soon?" she asked, trying to hide her impatience.

"Don't even start," warned Kisame, glaring slightly. She sighed lightly, trying to find something to entertain herself with that won't get her killed. She'd never admit it out loud but the shark man was probably stronger than her by ten fold so the girl figured that it was best to leave him alone.

They kept walking, Suzume looking around to find something interesting. She noticed out of the corner of her eye that Itachi was staring at her from the corner of his. She turned her head to face him and he looked away. "We'll stop soon," he said, to no one in particular. "There's a village coming up that we can rest in."

"Can you really just walk into a village like that?" she asked them. They were s-ranked criminals. Surely they would be persecuted.

"Of course," Kisame replied. "Most of them don't know who we are."

The girl stayed silent and continued to follow the older men. It was only about an hour before they reached the village that Itachi mentioned. As strange as it was, the three rented out a small hotel room to stay in.

Suzume planted herself right in front of the fan as soon as they got into the room. The other two took off their cloaks and sat down to rest. Kisame then offered to go get some good food for them to eat, hopefully something other than fish. The girl didn't heckle him any when she knew that he was in charge of lunch.

When the man left, the room became silent. Red eyes looked up to the only other person in sight, to see him with his eyes closed, sitting against the wall. Suddenly, his black eyes opened, staring right into hers. She looked away as fast as she could.

"What is it?" Itachi asked her, using his normal tone.

"Nothing," she answered, looking at the fan in front of her. When he closed his eyes again, she took a moment to observe him better. She had never really seen him with his cloak off, so it revealed a lot about him. It was also then that the brunette noticed just how much he looked like his brother.

The only thing was that he looked matured in a different way and surprisingly, not as cold. Sasuke was always so distant and he usually had an angry or sour look on his face. Itachi didn't look like that. He looked... peaceful in a way. It was hard to notice for other people as usually when they met, it wasn't under friendly circumstances.

The Akatsuki cloak, while covering the person's whole body, also covered about half their face. And now that her sensei was not wearing it, Suzume noticed that, also like his brother, the man was quite good looking. She blushed slightly at her thoughts but didn't look away. Anybody would think it. Especially with his long hair, tied back into a low ponytail. It was quite different from Sasuke's spikes.

His skin wasn't as pale as Sasuke's but it still contrasted with his black hair. His features also weren't as sharp but he could still look just as menacing. His eyes were also a different colour, less grey. They also didn't glare but they looked on with serenity. Wait... eyes?

The girl's face flushed when she realized that the man had been staring back, one eyebrow slightly raised. She opened her mouth to say something before changing her mind. She did this several times before just looking away, face bright red. "Sorry," she muttered, embarrassed to be caught like that.

Itachi never said a word, which she was thankful for as it would only make her feel worse. An awkward silence took over the room. Suzume wasn't sure what to say or even if she should say anything at all. If she had done that to Sasuke, he'd be making some smart remark about... who knows what, so it wouldn't have been as awkward. Or maybe it would...

The girl remembered the last time she saw him, right before the Chuunin exams. Just thinking about it made her stomach drop and her fists clench. If him rejecting her wasn't enough, the satisfied look on Sakura's face made up for it. She frowned slightly before looking over at the man again. He had seen it too...

"Is there something you want to say?" he asked, not bothering to open his eyes.

She shook her head saying, "just wondering if your brother was gay."

The man half choked. "W-what?" Not the reaction she had expected from someone like him. "Why would you be wondering that?"

Deciding that she might as well tell him, the brunette began her rant. "It's just that, no matter how many girls make a move on him, he always rejects them. He hates kissing girls, let alone even touching them and the only person he really shows interest in is our other teammate, Naruto. I mean, doesn't that kind of scream gay? But like, seriously, I don't get why he won't date anybody. He says it's pointless because you won't even get married but like... doesn't he know how to have fun or something? Gosh, it's like he's this black hole of despair, sucking out all the fun and happiness in people. I mean, who the hell does he think he is, the grim reaper?

He can have fun. I mean, I've seen him laugh before... but then again, that was kind of sadistic. Doesn't matter, though. And he's always training and stuff and he always gets annoyed when people want to hang out with him. And he's always so... so... critical! And after being so mean, how dare he push me away!" The girl stopped abruptly, hand over her mouth, hoping and praying that the other hadn't heard the last part.

He chuckled lightly, closing his eyes. "A little dramatic, don't you think?" he asked her, with a raised eyebrow. "Why should you be so upset that he didn't kiss you that one time?"

She groaned, knowing that he saw right through her. "Because... I'm a girl. I have needs. And kissing is one of those needs." The man looked at her for a moment. "What? Kissing can't be a need?"

"It's usually not. But if you really want to, why not go to Naruto-kun?" he pointed out.

"Because..." she began, trying to think of a good reason. She couldn't. Itachi laughed again, knowing that she didn't have one. "Okay, fine. He was my first kiss and... I liked it." Her face, again red, turned away from the man.

It was silent for a few moments before she spoke again. "Have you had your first kiss?" It was a stupid question for her to ask but if he didn't want to answer it, then he didn't have to. Her reddish eyes looked at him. He nodded slightly, probably a little weirded out by this conversation. "Oh. Was it with somebody that you really liked?"

"No," came his simple reply. His black eyes looked to the side, probably remembering something unpleasant. Suzume flinched, wondering if she had touched on a bad subject. "It was an accident. But nothing serious."

"Oh," she said, thinking about Sasuke and Naruto's kiss. That was one of the most horrifyingly funny things she had ever seen. "Anybody after that?"

"Why are you so curious?" he inquired, looking into her eyes. She squirmed and shrugged. "Yes."

She was surprised that he answered but further pressed the topic. "What kind of kiss was it?" The Uchiha looked slightly confused at this. "You know, was it long and romantic or short and sweet or what?"

He had a contemplating look for a minute. He then motioned her over so obviously, she didn't disobey. "It was..." he started, very quietly. The girl never thought that he was actually going to answer but listened in anyway.

His hand grabbed the back of her neck and brought her forward, their lips crashing together. Suzume was confused as to what was happening but didn't struggle. She felt something brush against her lip and realized it was his tongue. Not knowing what else to do, she opened her mouth. His tongue slipped into her mouth and explored all around, the poor brunette left confused and unmoving.

But before she could even get the hang of it, Itachi pulled away, letting go of her. "...something like that," he finished. Her red eyes were wide, her mouth slightly open in shock. She had never expected anything like that to happen.

Suddenly the door opened.

"Food's here!"

* * *

**Question... did anybody check out the piccie?**

**I just wanted to know what you think about it and the story so far. Especially, this chapter.**

**Review or message (though we all know that I prefer reviews). xD**


	10. Chapter 10

**Yeah, so finally I put up the chapter. I promised ryomaeijiarehot that I would so it's just okay. But important enough.**

**:) Sorry for the wait. I'm just so lazy.**

* * *

**Chapter 10**

As soon as the girl stepped into Konoha, her heart nearly stopped. It was different. Very different. People were busy going to and fro, cleaning and building. Well, not building... but fixing. Several buildings that had been there long before Suzume was born were now only half built. Not only were the villagers working diligently, the ninja were speeding across rooftops, back and forth, each of them seeming in a hurry to where they were going.

She walked through the village, looking around, confused as to what was going on. What had she missed? It was a few minutes before she saw somebody she recognized. What a coinky dink. It was the younger Uchiha himself, walking seemingly with no direction.

"Sasuke!" she called out, running over. His eyes moved to look at her before he fully turned her way.

Once she got over, the brunette noticed his piercing stare. "Where have you been?" he demanded, crossing his arms.

She shrunk back slightly, startled by his tone. "I was training..."

"Where?" he asked, still keeping his glaring expression.

"Out of Konoha. Why?" she shot back. Suzume didn't know why he was being such a jerk. It wasn't like she had to tell him where she was going at all times. He reminded her of her father when she snuck out once.

"Why didn't you come to the Chuunin exams?"

That stopped her in her tracks. It was quiet between them, his expression taking on a different meaning. He didn't look so angry anymore... He looked upset. "Oh... I was busy," was her answer. He glared to the side, frowning in the silence. "Why? Did you want me to be there?" She moved so that he was looking at her.

His eyes widened slightly as a small streak of red appeared on his face. "N-no. It was Naruto. He kept complaining about how he wanted you there." He averted his eyes again. "It was annoying."

Suzume straightened. "Oh, okay. I guess I should go find him then," she concluded, turning to go look for the boy. She had only walked a few steps before being halted.

"Wait!" the boy called, holding onto her arm to make her stop. The brunette looked at him, inwardly smug with herself. She figured that he was going to stop her because it wasn't really Naruto that missed her. It was obviously him. "He's on a mission."

Wow. Ego deflate. "Oh... well, then I'll find him when he gets back." Her eyes scanned their surroundings.

"What happened here?"

"Walk," he commanded, starting off himself. She followed, walking beside him, staring at the ground. "We were attacked during the Chuunin exams. Suna teamed up with Oto and this was the result..."

"But... Suna is our ally, right?" She furrowed her eyebrows, looking toward the other boy.

"Yeah, apparently, they were tricked into thinking that it's what the Kazekage wanted. They said that Orochimaru had killed and impersonated him," he explained.

"Orochimaru?" she questioned.

"You don't know him?" he asked. She shook her head. "He's one of the legendary Sannin, taught by the third..." He trailed off all of a sudden, confusing her even more.

"Sasuke?" The girl bent down to look at his face which had become somber. "What's wrong?" Still she received no reply. Her mouth formed a frown her eyes still trying to make contact with his.

"He died," came his small voice.

"Who? Orochimaru?"

"No," he snapped, making her jump. "The third..." His voice was low and his head was hung down, this shadow of his bangs covering his eyes. Suzume's eyes widened, her jaw dropped, a small gasp escaping.

"Impossible," she whispered, looking toward the ground. The Uchiha looked up at her and shook his head. "He can't though... he's... immortal or something." Though she hadn't really had much contact with the Hokage, the girl felt a special bond toward the man. Everyone did. He protected the village and cared for everyone in it. It felt as if he couldn't possible be gone.

"He's dead," Sasuke muttered again.

"And the funeral...?" Slight dread covered her eyes.

"You missed it." She was afraid of that. Her red eyes shut as she turned her face upward.

"I want to say goodbye to him," she started quietly, looking toward the boy again. He nodded before the two of them walked into the woods, headed toward the polished KIA stone.

The sun was shining but the day felt dull, all of the morning's energy sucked right out of existence. Both genin bowed their heads as they stood before the stone. Suzume's fingers gently ran along the name carved into it. She remembered the day she entered the academy when she first met the hokage. He was so kind to everyone... even Naruto.

Another name caught her eye causing her to pull a double take. Onyx eyes looked to her frozen face. She reached out and touched the name, mouthing it. "N-no way..." Sasuke looked to the name, his expression softening.

"Who's that?" The brunette didn't even look at him, gaze still fixated on the stone. She heard him ask again but barely, her head feeling light and her vision becoming hazy. Tears fell down her cheeks before she collapsed into the darkness.

* * *

Warmth surrounded her whole body, soft and comfortable. Suzume shifted herself slightly, regaining the feeling of her limbs, also moving the blankets that fell around her. They were thick and oh-so wonderful, making her sink into them even more.

"Are you awake?" asked a familiar voice. Her eyes opened to connect with Sasuke's own dark orbs. She nodded a little, turning and hugging the fluffy pillow close to her. "You feeling okay?" His deep voice was tender and hushed, unlike his usual crudeness.

"Mmm... yeah," she crooned. She shut her eyes real tight, burying her face into the 'cloud'. "Why is this so comfortable...? Where am I?" Her words were muffled but still understandable.

"You're in my bed," the Uchiha answered, his tone unchanged. The girl was about to shoot up and out of there when he pushed her back down. "Don't worry about it. Just stay here." An extremely small smile was on his face.

"O-kay..." she muttered, looking at him unsurely. It was very rare for him to do something like that. "Why am I here?" the brunette asked, pulling the blanket back up.

"You fainted," he replied. "At the KIA stone."

It was then that the memories came rushing back, hitting her like a bullet train. "Oh no! I've got to get home!" The girl scrambled up before being pushed back down and held in place.

"It's raining," was all the boy said.

Suzume struggled against him. "B-but I don't care! I've got to get home right now!"

"Suzume!" he snapped at her, his eyes suddenly narrowing. "You're going to do yourself no good by going out there right now! I know that you're sad but it's not the best time to be going home!"

Tears poured from her eyes as she attempted to squirm out of his vice-like grip. "What the hell are you talking about? I **HAVE** TO GO HOME!" she shouted. "My father is dead! I have to see my family!"

Sasuke pushed down on her. "They're gone!"

It was then she stopped struggling. "What?" Her voice wavered in the silence.

He looked away from her. "Your family... is gone." His eyes travelled back to her face. Her eyebrows were furrowed and her jaw was clenched.

"What do you mean?" Her eyes still watered, tears spilling over.

"They left. After the fight... they left Konoha," he told her, looking directly into her eyes, invading her mind.

"Impossible!" she shouted. "They can't leave! It's against the rules!" Of course, she was referring to the fact that they were Iwate ninja; those who had sworn to protect the village under any circumstances. It was an ancient promise.

"They did, Suzume." It grew silent once more as she shut her eyes. "I'm sorry."

"No you're not," the girl hissed, shoving him off of her. "You don't even care..." Her mind travelled back to the time she was saying goodbye before the chuunin exam.

He seemed to know what she was thinking. "That was in public. I told you not to do that." She turned her face away from him, angrily, sniffling. His glare softened again. "Look, let's not focus on that right now... Are you okay?" His tone was the same as it was before she had remembered what happened.

"What do you think?" Suzume spat, standing with her arms crossed away from him.

The boy sighed. The girl felt something warm wrap around her waist. She half squeaked as it pulled her down onto the bed. "Don't worry. You can stay here for now. I don't mind," he told her, being a lot nicer than usual. A small blush appeared when she noticed that he was still hugging her. "I just want to make sure you're okay. I know what it's like to lose family."

The brunette just nodded slightly. Sasuke put his hand on her forehead. "You have a fever." She didn't say anything in reply. "At least change into something else. It's late and you should go back to sleep." He stood and walked over to a brown drawer, pulling out a few clothing items. "You can wear these..."

She didn't move. "I don't want to change. I don't want to do anything."

The boy sighed in exasperation before moving on to threats, "You know, if you don't change yourself, I'll do it for you." Her red eyes gazed into his.

"Fine."

It was quiet for a moment. "Just change," he told her, a small blush coming onto his face. When she didn't respond, he shoved the clothes into her hands and walked out of the room. But of course, knowing that it was an extremely nice thing he was doing for her, Suzume complied, pulling on his clothes.

The black shirt he had given her was slightly big, but very comfortable. However, instead of wearing the pants he offered to her, the brunette decided to find something more to her liking. She went over to the brown drawer and shoved the clothing back in before opening another drawer. Inside, the girl found fangirl jackpot. Underwear.

A red blush covered her face. She hadn't meant to do that... but since it was already open. Her reddish eyes scanned the selection, noting how everything was so neatly folded. She almost giggled until she realized how weird she was being by going through his stuff. "I'll just... take one."

* * *

Sasuke stared at the girl before him, flabbergasted. "Are those my boxers?" he questioned in disbelief. Suzume looking up and away, donned in the white undergarments. The boy stuttered, "w-why are you wearing my boxers?"

"They're comfortable!" she reasoned, trying to calm the poor kid down. "And... I can't sleep in pants," she added quietly.

His eyes went blank. "What?" He got no reply. "What do you mean?"

"I mean what I said! What else could that mean?"

The Uchiha growled, covering his face with his hands. "Why can't you sleep in pants?"

"Because it gets too hot," came her mumbled reply. Sasuke opened his mouth to say something but only sighed in exasperation.

"Fine. I guess it wouldn't be good if you got any hotter," he said to her, walking past the girl and into his room.

Suzume's face contorted slightly. "What did you say?"

"Temperature wise!" he added, blushing furiously. The girl just giggled slightly at his flustered state and sat on the bed beside him. She looked to the clock to realize that it was later than she thought. It was 8:45... well... 44 but whatever.

"Sasuke," she started quietly. "How long can I stay here?"

His gaze turned to her questioningly. "What do you mean 'how long'?" The girl didn't reply, merely returned his look. "You can stay as long as you want."

Suzume was surprised by this answer. Not long before, he had been rushing her away from him, keeping as much distance as possible and now... this? A warm feeling filled her chest, causing her to smile slightly. The boy looked at her, confused.

"Really? As long as I want?" she asked him, moving her face closer to his.

His dark eyes widened considerably, his mouth opening slightly. After what seemed to be an attempt to speak, he simply nodded his head quickly. It grew silent and neither moved, gazing deep into each other's eyes. The look he had in his eyes was so familiar but she couldn't place it. The brunette leaned forward a little, gently pushing her lips against his for but a moment before pulling back.

Sasuke closed his eyes and turned his head upward, as if soaking in the moment. Also very familiar to her and yet, it was still on the tip of her tongue. A sigh escaped her as she shifted away from him.

"What's wrong?" he asked her, genuinely concerned. There were so many ways that she could answer that question. Let's see, her father died, then her family abandoned her and the village that they swore to protect, the guy she likes still won't kiss her back. A lot of things were wrong.

"Why won't you kiss me?" The girl frowned at him, arms crossed. The question seemed to surprise him as he didn't answer, only furrowed his eyebrows. "Is there something wrong with me or do you not like me? Do you like someone else? Is it Sakura? Is it Ino? Is it Mai?" With each question asked, Sasuke tried to cut in but was interrupted by the next. "Is it Naruto? Are you gay?"

"What are you talking about?" he shouted, startling the other. "I'm not gay and I don't like anybody else," he told her, chuckling slightly.

"Then why won't you kiss me?" she asked again, frustrated.

Without another word, Sasuke's hand grabbed the back of her neck, pulling her into him, their lips crashing together. His tongue slipped into her mouth, playing with her own as his arms wrapped around her slim figure. This lasted for about a minute, Suzume quickly breaking the contact. This time, when she looked him in the eye, the resemblance was alarming.

The brothers looked more alike than she had originally thought. The young boy kissed her again, softly this time, trying to bring her closer but again, she moved away. Every time she looked at him, it felt as if she was looking at Itachi. It brought an uncomfortable, heavy feeling in the pit of her stomach. Sasuke tilted his head to the side, perturbed.

"Maybe not now," she said awkwardly, trying to think of a good excuse. There was no way she could tell him that he looked like his brother. "I'm kind of tired and I think I want to sleep."

"What? So why were you yelling at me a few minutes ago about how I won't kiss you unless you wanted me to kiss you?" Disbelief was apparent on his pale face. "Why would you even bother?"

"Look, I'm sorry but at least I know that you want to. It's just that... it's been a rough day and everything is just out of control and I'm so confused. I'm sorry but I just don't know what to do. I just feel like the whole world is crashing down and everything is just getting so... so..." The girl didn't even get to finish before breaking down into tears.

She must have been a better actor than she thought as Sasuke's expression immediately relaxed. "Just... sleep," he muttered to her, not looking at her. It was if he was... apologizing. He stood up, stretching and looked back to her. "I'll be in the next room if you need me."

And with that he walked out, leaving Suzume alone to her thoughts. She inhaled deeply, trying to rid herself of that pressing feeling with no avail.

"I am so... Ugh!"

* * *

**There you go. You want me to continue?**

**Review and nag me until I do!**


	11. Chapter 11

**FIXED.**

**

* * *

**

**Chapter 11**

The next few weeks were difficult for Suzume. The whole village was just starting to get back up on its feet yet she remained where she was, fallen in the mud. There was, however, one who tried with all of his might to help her and to comfort her in her time of need. Sasuke was always there for her.

It was surprisingly comforting to know that he was there in the next room whenever she needed him. Yeah, that's right. She had been staying with him since that one night, too afraid to go back to her compound and face her other family members though she knew the time would have to come soon. She would need to visit her father's grave in the clan's cemetary. Just thinking about it made her eyes water.

She knew that she would have to go soon but she wasn't sure about how she would take it. There was still a slight hope within her, telling her that her father was still alive and that everything would be okay. But seeing the grave stone would surely change all of that and to be honest, the girl didn't think she was ready.

Recently, she had also been very anxious when it came to training and ninja affairs. While the rest of team seven went on with their missions and helped to rebuild Konoha, Suzume stayed in Sasuke's house or loafed around the village. She hardly did any training though and when she did, it was only simple things to maintain her skills. To make matters worse, Itachi and Kisame hadn't come around since they dropped her off, leaving her to wonder where they were.

"Suzume, don't you think it's time that you go home?" Sasuke asked her, sitting next to her on his bed. Her reddish eyes looked up at him sullenly, dreading his words.

"Am I causing you trouble?" she asked him, frowning slightly. In truth, the words were spoken with the intent of making him feel guilty for trying to kick her out.

He shook his head. "It's not that. You know that. But sitting here and sulking isn't going to do anything." His expression hardened slightly as he stared at her, letting her know that he was being serious. "I mean it, Suzume. You can't keep doing this."

Her gaze stiffened slightly as well. "Are you kicking me out?"

After a frustrated sigh, the boy replied, "Yes, I am. This is my house and as much as I understand what you're going through, I don't think it's right that I baby you this much. Go home and go visit your father then get back to your job. As much as you want to think of yourself right now, Konoha can't stand that kind of attitude. Everyone lost someone important, okay? Stop wallowing in your own self-pity and help out."

A short silence followed his words as they sank in. He was right and Suzume knew that... as much as she would have liked to deny it. "Fine. I'll go," she muttered, falling backward onto the bed. "But... can you come with me when I go to visit him?"

Sasuke stared at her for a moment before nodding once and standing. "Be ready to go for tonight." And with that, he left the girl to think about what she needed to do.  
What would happen when she saw the grave stone in front of her? What would happen when she could reach out and touch it and know that it was real in every way?  
How could one even begin to get over something like that?

Sure, for most of her life, the man had never been very kind or caring toward her. However, in the most recent days of their relationship, Suzume was finally beginning to be somebody in his eyes and the feeling she got when he praised her was euphoric. Even if he hadn't completely acknowledged her, he was still her father. He gave her a roof to sleep under and food to eat. She could have never forsaken that.

"Tomorrow is going to be a long day..." she sighed to herself, staring at the white ceiling. The warmth of the blankets engulfed her as she burrowed into them, shielding her from the chill of her dreary thoughts of the Iwate compound. The thought of sleeping in that lonely house did little to comfort her, only causing her to curl up in Sasuke's sheets.

Suzume knew that she would miss the familiar scent of his bed and of his house, but she also knew that she was putting him out by staying there. He hadn't slept in his own bed for a long time, as she was always in it, which means that he had been staying in the guest room. He didn't complain about it though; that was the worst part about it.

Maybe he didn't complain because he was so tired from all the missions he was given every day. The boy was hardly ever home and when he was he usually just went straight to bed. The two had barely spoken over the past few weeks, let alone anything else. Yes, that means that they hadn't kissed, hugged, or had any form of physical contact.

The girl frowned when she realized the fact that though she had been staying in Sasuke's house and eating his food and taking up his bed, she hadn't done a thing for him. She stood and left the room, heading toward the kitchen where she knew he's be eating his lunch before going to sleep.

"Sasuke?" the brunette called, peering into the room. She saw him drying the dish he had just washed before putting it away. He looked at her. She went over, not saying a word, and pressed their lips together, standing on her tippy toes. After a few seconds, she pulled away, smiling softly at him.

"Um... and that was for?" the Uchiha asked, looking perturbed.

Suzume giggled slightly, a tinge of pink staining her cheeks. "I don't know, I jus thought that you might want it." Her red eyes glanced up at him while she bit her bottom lip in the cutest way she could, just in time to catch him stumble over himself. He blushed slightly, looking away from her.

"Thanks, I guess," he mumbled, scratching the back of his head. "Anyway, I'm going to go to bed now. Tired." The boy quickly tried to escape the room to try and rid himself of any embarrassment that might follow but the damage was done. The girl giggled once more, pulling him back by his hand.

The way their fingers locked together so perfectly was fascinating to the young brunette. It just seemed to easy to grab hold of him and it felt... right. It was as if there was a spark of electrcity dancing around when their hands met and yet at the same time, it was soothing and warm. She noticed this all within the second that they touched. For a moment, she wondered if he felt that connection to but immediately brushed it off. Impossible.

She let go of his hand but had already caught his attention. He had stopped to hear what she had to say. "I just wanted to let you know that you can use your own room. It's not right for me to take up all your stuff and if I'm going to take a nap, I'll use the other room. Okay?"

Sasuke seemed to pause for a moment but gave a slight nod. "Okay then. But if you need to take a nap, you can come to my room. I don't mind sharing."  
Taken aback and flustered, the girl simply nodded as the other turned and walked off tiredly into his room.

Did he really just say that?

* * *

Suzume didn't want to go. A few days had passed since she had moved back into her old, empty house and she had yet to visit her father. She didn't want to. To see that stone would mean accepting everything that had happened: his death, her family's abandonment, and the fact that her life was falling apart at the seams.

Sasuke held onto her hand tightly, their fingers entwinted, as he led her toward the cemetary. The girl leaned away from him, pulling back on him in an attempt to run away from that place. But he didn't let her go. She knew it was for the best anyway. It had to be done and if she wasn't going to do it on her own, then somebody was just going to have to force her.

"Sasuke, you know what? I don't think I want to today," the brunette girl exclaimed suddenly, tugging her slender fingers away from his.

"You're going," he replied bluntly, grabbing her hand roughly.

The girl jerked back again in pain. "Not today... please?"

Just as the boy looked like he would protest, she turned her reddish eyes onto his onyx. The pleading orbs glistened with fresh pools of sadness. His stony gaze softened when he saw the tears threatening to spill over. He let out a sigh. "Fine, we'll go tomorrow."

"Thank you," were her whispered words. Taking a quick look around, she saw several clan members staring through their windows or standing on the street, all of them coming to see what was going to happen now that the disgraced child was back in the compound. The other seemed to notice this as well.

"Don't look at them," he told her quietly. His gentle hands cupped her face, demanding her full attention. His dark eyes stared into hers, if not somewhat awkwardly. Their lips touched in a quick but meaningful kiss. When the warmth left her, the girl's lips parted as she took in the feeling that she just experienced, wanting more.

However, when she went to act upon that longing, he spoke. "I have to go then. I'll see you later." His speech was swift and hard, leaving her both confused and upset. The boy ran off.

"Stupid Sasuke."

* * *

Suzume awoke from a dreamless sleep to find herself staring into darkness. Night had fallen upon Konoha, warm and dry, and the moon was the only light in the compound. She sat up, letting the soft cotton blankets fall from her body. It was too hot a night for those anyway. The girl pulled her legs up against her body, wrapping her arms around them and resting her chin on her knees.

"Something wrong?" a raspy voice suddenly rang out. The brunette jumped and twisted off her bed, grabbing a kunai quickly, holding it up to defend herself.

When she saw who the voice belonged to, a growl sounded from the back of her throat. "You stupid fish! What the hell are you doing in my room?" Kisame easily caught the knife she had thrown, chuckling to himself. "Get out!"

"Gladly," he retorted, pocketing the weapon. "I was just here to tell you that Itachi wants you to meet him in the training grounds."

"But-"

"Now," the man added, glaring at her as if daring her to refuse.

She didn't. The girl scoffed at him and began pulling clothes out of her drawer. "Get out of my room, you damned shark!"

As soon as he left, Suzume changed into her regular ninja clothes and sat down on her bed. She knew that it was only a matter of time before Itachi came to call on her but she didn't think that it would be so soon. Then again, their time together did get cut short because of what happened with the Chuunin exams.

Making her way to the rendezvous point, the girl passed by the cemetary, a cold shiver running up her spine. Never did she want to go in there, even if she said that she would go there with Sasuke the next day. He couldn't force her if he couldn't find her right? All she needed was a way not to be found and everything would be okay.

When she got to the meeting place, Suzume saw that Kisame was no where in sight, however, Itachi sat against a tree, staring up toward the sky in his usual manner. She carefully made her way over to the older man, standing in front of him, ready for some sort of attack. Nothing came. He merely stared at her for a long while, unnerving her more than ever before.

"Sensei, you called?" she asked, after quite some time of silence.

"Yes," he replied. "I think it's time to do some more training. I've let you have your grieving time but that is now over. We have to make up for lost time now so be prepared." He stood to his full height, forcing her to look up at him.

"How are we going to make up for it?" the girl inquired, a strange feeling building up in her stomach. Something told her that she already knew the answer and she did not like it.

His placid stare pierced through her body. "Soon, you are going to leave with us. You will meet the Akatsuki members as per the original plan and you will train harder than you have ever trained in your life." The seriousness in his voice never faded.

Suzume could do little to conceal her displeasure. "For how long?"

"Years."

"Years?" the girl practically screeched back. "Sensei, I understand a few months or something but years?"

Itachi's normally blank face showed a hint of irritation, sending a wave of fear over the younger girl. "You will do as I say. For strength, many sacrifices must be made and time is hardly something you should complain about. There are no quick and easy ways to gain true strength." His pale face returned to its typical indifference, calming her slightly.

However, his words did little to soothe her. Then again, what choice did she have? Suzume knew that there was no way she could disobey Uchiha Itachi: the man who struck fear into the hearts of those who even caught a whisper of his name. He could and would kill her without a moment's notice if she ever decided she didn't want to listen to him.

"Yes, sensei. I understand." Her brown hair covered her eyes as she bowed low, asking for forgiveness. He said nothing. "But... when is soon?"

"You will know when the time comes. In the meantime, we'll train here every two days at midnight. Do not be late." Suzume nodded, not knowing what would happen if she was late and really not wanting to know either. "Good. Now, tell me about your time with my partner."

For a moment, the girl was confused about what he meant until the memories of her training with Kisame came flooding back. "Oh, he taught me how to make a water sword." The man looked at her expectantly. She took a deep breath, closing her eyes and putting all of her concentration toward her arm.

She needed to feel the water from the pond come to her and she needed to compress it, harden it without freezing it. She needed to shape it and sharpen it, to make the perfect sword; one that could cut through anything she put it up against. Within moments, her hand was gripping this double-edged blade, tinged with blue. A triumphant look took over her face as she noticed that her mentor seemed to be... impressed.

Itachi took the sword from her, turning it over and inspecting it. "It looks good," he praised, running his finger along the flat side of the weapon. "But how will it hold up in combat?" The sword was returned to her and almost immediately, Suzume found another blade being thrown at her.

Instinctively, she held up her weapon, letting the kunai ricochet off of it. Her reddish eyes widened considerably when she saw more kunai and shuriken whipping through the air in her direction. All were blocked by the sword. Knowing that all she had to do was remain on the defensive, the girl didn't even bother to think of a plan to defeat her opponent. Or at least, that was her excuse. The real reason she didn't- couldn't, was that Itachi was attacking too fast, forcing her to focus only on not getting hit.

The projectiles were coming from every direction except for the ground but Suzume was pretty sure that they would be coming from there soon. Her movements became frantic, the terror of the thought of losing her life fueling her actions. Had she not been spinning around in an attempt to stop all the weapons, Itachi would surely see her shaking. A blade gingerly sliced her cheek, causing her to flinch.

The grip on her sword loosened for a moment as she twitched in the sensation of pain. Big mistake. The momentum from her constant spinning thrust the watery saber out of her hand, leaving her to the mercy of the kunai. The girl ducked suddenly, the last few weapons grazing the tips of her hair before lodging themselves into the ground.

The air was still as her timid eyes travelled up to where the older man stood. It took an outstanding amount of willpower to prevent her maroon orbs from betraying their surprise. In the place of his ordinarily calm face, was a frown and a pair of slightly widened black eyes. Suzume looked to where his watchful gaze rested.

There, embedded in the tree was her blade of dew, with less than half of its length showing. The startling thing about it, however, was that between the blade and the tree, was the sleeve of Itachi's cloak. A docile breeze came sweeping through the small clearing, lifting the girl's unclipped hair and gently brushing it to the side.

The man's elegant hand slithered to the handle of the sword, grasped it tightly and wrenched it out of the trunk, further tearing his silky garments. He cast it onto the ground in front of her, allowing her to claim it once more. It felt moderately heavier than it had beforehand. With a brisk examination, Suzume spotted splashes of red trailing on one edge of the water, mixing with the liquid and slowly dissolving into the sword itself, tinting it slightly pink.

"I didn't think you would notice my pattern," admitted Itachi, giving her a look she could quite place. The girl could see the blood run down his hand, collecting into a tiny puddle on the ground.

"Sensei, I'm sorry," the brunette apologized, stepping closer so she could batter see the wound.

The man held up a hand to halt her advance. "No, I'm sorry. I underestimated your abilities and for that I have paid the price. I never expected you to be able to see my attack patterns." The student did what she could to further hide her confusion. She had no idea what her teacher was talking about. "However, this works to our advantage. I was going to teach you this in a few months but since you already seem to show an understanding, I think we'll do it tonight."

Suzume nodded, not totally following the conversation but allowing him to continue. "Every ninja, whether he knows it or not, has attack patterns. These are simply just habits that said person has before, after and during the attack. For example, you saw that I was only throwing weapons in certain places which meant that I left a weak spot open for attack. By noticing this, you read my pattern. Most genin would not be able to notice something like that."

The girl said nothing, accepting the praise for her little accident. "The sharingan, the Uchiha bloodline trait, allows for the user to read these patterns with ease however, because you don't have this, it's going to be a lot harder for you to learn how to figure out the patterns. Some aren't as obvious as the one I was using before."

Suzume perked up a bit when she heard those words. "You mean, you're going to teach me?"

The man nodded in response. "I'm going to try to make you more aware of the fact that these patterns exists so that you'll be able to pick them out easier. And since you already seem to have a particular aptitude with this, it shouldn't be too difficult."

"So, basically, you're going to attack me a lot and use patterns so that I can learn to distinguish them. And this is so that in the case of a real battle, I can come up with a strategy based on the movements of my enemy," the girl deduced, trying her best to sound intelligent.

"Precisely."

At first, a sense of pride fell upon the brunette at these words. She felt like a genius. That was, until she realized what she had said before. Itachi was going to be attacking her... and a lot. She threw a nervous glance at her mentor though he said nothing, merely letting the words sink in.

"Feel lucky," he told her, looking her in the eye. "Not many people are able to do this as easily as you are. You were born with many talents; perhaps, more than I orginally thought." Suzume held his gaze, seemingly hypnotized by his ebony irises, so deep and clouded that she wondered what could be going on inside of him.

"I think though," he began, breaking the contact between them before continuing, "that we should stop here for tonight. You've proven that I need to re-evaluate your level and come up with a different lesson for tomorrow." He turned his head toward the sky.

"Tomorrow?"

"Yes, tomorrow. We'll train again here at twelve o'clock sharp. Is there a problem?" The man looked back to where she stood, stepping a pace closer. The girl shook her head rapidly, intimidated by his actions.

He scrutinized her as she began to pick up his weapons for him, trying to forget about the look that he was giving her. She could feel the stare boring holes into her back, shaking her confidence as each second passed. Her teeth bit into her pink bottom lip, the grip on the kunai handles tightening, as she suppressed a shudder.

Once she returned the weapons to their rightful owner and released the chakra from her water sword, letting the contents seep back into the ground, Suzume hurried to take her leave. Itachi had something else in mind.

"Come," he said, stepping in front of her. "I think you need to see something."

* * *

The young brunette fingered the hem of her azure kimono shirt, pulling on the strings that had come loose. She stared at them intensely, as if they were the most interesting things in the world. She would do anything to keep herself from looking up.

The grass below her was sprinkled with the night's dew, soaking her shoes as she shifted her weight from one foot to another. The icy air was stifling; constricting and crushing her. The moonlit sky illuminated the whole area with an eerie glow, the pearly stones seeming to resonate with an unearthly light.

"Sensei, why did you bring me here?" the girl asked, almost under her breath. The two stood in the Iwate cemetary, lingering in front of a certain grave. She stared at her mentor's upturned face as he breathed in and out slowly, his eyes closed peacefully.

He turned toward her, serenity being his only emotion. "You needed to see this, didn't you?"

The words caught in her throat. Her reddish eyes tore themselves away from the man before resting their sights upon the pure white stone before her. Along with Konoha's symbol of the leaf, there was a handprint engraved into the tablet: the symbol of their fidelity to the village and the honour that her father carried to the day of his death. It showed the gods that this man had fulfilled his oath in protecting the village so that they would allow him to rest in peace.

Suzume fell to her knees. Her trembling fingers traced the delicate imprint, knowing that this was all that was left of her father's strong hands. It was a tradition in their clan to use the hand-print of the deceased to put onto the tombstone. The faint trace of the kanji of 'promise' was painted red on the polished rock. It felt smooth and warm to the touch.

The girl choked back a sob as reality came crashing down on her. This was a memorial for her father: a once great and powerful man who now was nothing but dust in the wind. She would never again hear his voice or look on his determined face. He was gone and there was no power in the world to bring him back.

A hand on her arm dragged her up off of her knees. Her red eyes burned with rage when she looked into those of the one who grabbed her. But the glare lasted moments before the tears began to stream down her face, causing her to look away as she muffled another sob.

"Stop crying," the voice said gruffly. "A ninja shouldn't cry."

Knowing he was right, Suzume struggled to cease the flow of tears but with no avail. How could she? Though she was a ninja, she was moreso a human, and humans were weak with emotion.

She hiccupped.

Itachi forced her to look him in the eye, the black orbs still not showing any sort of emotion, empty and cold. "Stop crying," he repeated quietly. At first, the girl cringed when he raised his hand, bracing herself for the blow but relaxed when his hand rested on the back of her head. He pulled her closer to him, holding her in a long embrace.

When he pulled away from her, she frowned slightly, missing the feeling of refuge he gave her, but then she realized that the tears had stopped. She looked up at him, amazed at how comforting he was being. With one last look into his consoling red eyes, she fell into a heavy, dreamless sleep; the first good rest she had gotten in a very long time.

* * *

**Reviews would be nice. :)**


	12. Chapter 12

**And here it is... the long awaited...**

* * *

**Chapter 12**

The next few days were hard and confusing for Suzume, both in the day and late into the night. The training sessions with Itachi were spent in mild distraction as she thought back to the incident after her visiting night.

Sasuke had come back the next afternoon only to find that the girl had already gone to see her father. Naturally, she had left out the part where Itachi brought her and comforted her. It probably wouldn't have been a good idea to mention something like that. Even still, the boy had seemed a little put off by the fact that she hadn't needed him there and left soon after she had told him.

Unfortunately, her distraction cost her dearly. The girl sunk to the ground after yet another onslaught, gripping her left arm tightly to prevent the blood from gushing out of the knife wound. Her attacker stood before her, unmoving and silent. His eyes stared coldly at the warm, red liquid leaking from between her fingers.

She let out a small groan when she removed her hand to look at her marred flesh. Itachi's kunai had torn right through her as soon as her guard was down. Their eyes met, his gaze unwavering yet unchallenging. "You shouldn't have given me such a big opening," were his simple words.

The brunette made a noise of frustration. "It wasn't that big and it was only for a second!" Her blood-stained hand recovered the gash, pressing firmly against it.

"A second is all it takes, kid," cut in the blue man sitting against the tree not too far away. "You should be able to see that by now. He could have taken your head off."

Suzume tried to muster a glare toward the man but failed, knowing already that his logic was sound. Just that one moment of weakness could have gotten her killed were Itachi a real enemy. Instead, she sighed in defeat. "Yeah yeah," the girl muttered. "Well, I didn't die so it doesn't matter what could have happened."

"No, Suzume, it does." Her reddish eyes looked back to her mentor as he stood over her. "You have to learn how to prevent something like that. It's not a good idea to leave it to luck unless you really do want to die." He stepped closer to her bending down as she fumbled for something to say to that. Again, there was no argument. "Let me look," the man continued, reaching for her arm.

His grip was not rough nor gentle but it was careful as he eased the fabric of her shirt away from the cut on her upper arm, exposing her shoulder. A warm breeze danced through the open field, warming her peachy skin. His polished fingers lightly prodded at her injury, sending tremors of pain through her entire arm. Dark eyes evaluated the damage with resolute concentration, pulling every detail into the sea of knowledge swirling behind them. The younger girl wondered how he could put so much effort into one action and at the same time, put forward little effort at all.

His strong grasp dragged her closer to him, using not her arm but her waist. White bandages worked their way around the slash of her arm, tugged by the man's nimble hands, considerate of the near numbing pain that plagued it. Suzume paid no heed to it but rather watched her mentor's placid face as he delicately dressed her wound. His grip had lost its strength, the skin of his fingers just barely brushing against hers. It gave the girl goosebumps.

"Would you like to be alone?" Kisame interrupted her thoughts mockingly. The grin he wore on his face was made meticulously more threatening by his sharp shark teeth. Still, it didn't scare the little brunette, only caused irritation.

Then Suzume realized what he meant. The cloth on her arm had already been secured and yet her shirt still hung from her shoulder, threatening to reveal her chest. How long it had been like that, she didn't know but she quickly held it in place. Itachi's hand still lingered on her forearm, her own hand grasping at the sleeve of his Akatsuki cloak as if preventing him from moving away. His ebony gaze was laced with curiousity as it met her own bewildered one. Apparently, she had been staring again.

Blood rushed to her face, rendering it an unnatural shade of pink as she scrambled for an answer and a way away from him. Before she could even speak, the man still in front of her raised his other unoccupied hand and waved his partner away. "Go," came his simple command.

The words held in them little authority but the shark man decided to listen to them regardless. "Okay then, Itachi-san, I'll leave you two alone," he paused for a moment to shoot the stunned brunette a suggestive look. "Just don't take too long. I don't want to come back and see something I really don't want to see." Then he left, snickering wildly the whole way.

Suzume's face was flushed with red as she looked back to her mentor who seemed to be affected not at all. He remained crouched before her, his cloak still folded in her clutches and his touch still grazing over her. She suddenly realized that she still held him and let go of the soft material, pushing herself over the ground and away from him.

"Sorry," she managed to mumble, looking away from him and gingerly pulling her azure top back into place over her shoulder. It brushed harmlessly against the bandages.

For a moment, he said nothing, merely stared at her. "You have been distracted." She met his stare with ruddy eyes poised with mock confusion. It made him shake his head slowly. "What are you distracted by? You need to solve it or else it will only get in the way of your training." He stood up straight and tall, walking a few steps to stand in front of her again.

Again, a sigh of defeat. "It's nothing really important. It's just Sasuke," the girl confessed, trying to wave off the subject. It wasn't something she wanted to talk about with the boy's older brother whom he was dedicated to kill. It just didn't seem like a very good idea.

Itachi seemed slightly taken aback but it could most definitely have been a trick of the light. "Sasuke is not important?" The question was a simple one, spoken in an even tone but still, there seemed to be something unnerving just below the surface of it.

Suzume hastened to correct herself. "No! It isn't that he's not important but it just has to do with him and it wouldn't be very important to you."

The response shocked her into silence. "If it has to do with you, it's important to me. When something troubles you, it becomes my business too." The man stood above her while she oggled, not able to think of something to reply with... yet again. "It interferes with our training and only wastes my time," he added.

The girl almost slapped herself. Almost. Just as she was attempting to get to her feet, a hand appeared in front of her face, palm up in offering. Her sensei beckoned her. Slowly, she took his hand and allowed him to pull her out of her sitting position to stand next to him. "Well, I'll try to see that it won't get in the way, sensei. I'm sorry."

"Tell me what it is. Telling someone might get it off your mind," he furthered.

She looked his steady face over once, trying to decipher why he was even asking but could not come up with anything. "It's okay. I'll talk to one of my friends. Female friends."

"You have none." At first, Suzume opened her mouth to defend herself only to realize... he was right. It had been quite a while since she'd even seen any of her old friends, good terms or not. She then realized just how far back the memories of her fair weather friends had been pushed for her to not even recall them. She hadn't thought about them in a long time.

But now she was thinking about them. For some reason, the first thing she thought about was that she had no idea if Mai had ever tried to make another move on Sasuke. What if she had? Did he do anything to stop it or did he just let it happen like he almost had before? And if he did do something, what did it mean for her; did he even like her? The cloud of thoughts came storming through her mind as quick as lightning strikes.

At Itachi's rebuking stare, the young ninja remembered one of the rules that her sensei had taught her: to show emotion is to bare your neck to an enemy sword. She steeled herself, forcing her face to stay straight. "Perhaps... we should continue our training."

The man sighed before grabbing her arm, quite painfully, and dragging her to the shadows of a large tree. He pulled her to the ground beside him as he sat against the trunk, making her wince and hiss when the thick bark scraped against her. He did not apologize. She didn't expect him to.

"If we train now," he began, no longer looking at her, "you will die. You're too distracted and you will not be dismissed until you explain to me what my little brother has done to make you so." Suzume practically gaped at his persistence, shedding the wall that she had just attempted to build.

She stared at him, knowing that he wasn't looking at her. His dark eyes were upturned to the even darker night sky, making them shine in the pale moonlight. The stars twinkled above but for some reason that she could not fathom, the man's orbs seemed to shimmer more beautifully. He enjoyed the night, she concluded. It showed everywhere with the way his muscles relaxed against the tree.

The girl continued to observe him. She knew so little about him, left only to deduce what she could about him from what he had shown her. And yet, somehow, she felt close to him. She knew that she could keep council with him, that he would keep her secrets safe, and that he wouldn't judge her. She wasn't too sure how she knew this; perhaps merely intuition.

"It gets harder to ignore every time you do that, you know." That snapped Suzume back to attentiveness. She had been staring. As always. Her face brightened with red as she profusely apologized, ripping away her gaze and turning it to the ground on the opposite side of her. It was silent for a few minutes after until she looked at him again. This time, he stared at her, though his eyes did not seem vacant.

He reached out and grabbed the fabric of her shirt around her arm. "You're going to need new clothes soon. You're growing too quickly and look," he paused to motion to the sleeve. "It's ripped. Most of your clothes are."

The brunette at first didn't know what to say. "I could never afford it. Not anymore. I only get a little of my inheritence for now until I turn eighteen, or so Sasuke told me. He said that's what happened to him." At first, she regretted mentioning the last part, realizing to whom she was talking, but was relieved to see that he wasn't fazed.

"You won't get your inheritence," he mumbled softly. Suzume wasn't even sure if she heard him correctly.

"What?"

He didn't respond. After about ten minutes, he spoke again. "So what is it that is distracting you? Tell me. Now it's an order." His eyes bored into her skull, forcing her to look away from him. She knew now that she had no choice but to answer his question. He no longer asked her as a friend but as her master.

A sigh of resignation. "It's nothing, really. Just that I upset him... I think. He hasn't really been speaking to me lately." Suzume bowed her head in shame; because she had made Sasuke angry with her and because she was being forced to admit it to Itachi.

"That's all?" came the response after several silent seconds.

The girl couldn't bring herself to look up. "I told you it wasn't a big deal," she said quietly. Had it not been Itachi, she probably would have yelled it in an 'I-told-you-so' tone. However, such was not the case. She had no choice but to sink into herself.

He said nothing more.

* * *

"Morning," Suzume chirped to the young Uchiha boy sitting in the grass. He didn't even look up at her. She frowned, taking a quick glance around to see if anyone else was in the training ground. Nobody was there. "I said 'Good morning'," she repeated, thinking that perhaps he didn't hear. His eyes remained closed, head slightly bowed.

Then she thought that perhaps he might be sleeping. She waltzed up to him, bending down so her face was right in front of his. She couldn't tell.

"Can I help you?"

Sasuke stared at her, an irritated frown fixed upon his lips. "Erm, I was just saying 'good morning'. I thought that-"

"I heard." He closed his eyes again.

"Oh," the girl exhaled, still looking at the boy in front of her. There was an awkward silence for a few moments. Suzume kneeled in front of him, not knowing what else to do. Another silence. Her eyebrows furrowed, the corners of her lips down-turned. "It's been a little while since I've come to train, hasn't it?"

All efforts for conversation went unrewarded. The brunette tried to discern if there was any sort of hostility in his voice and posture but couldn't seem to find anything. Then again, she had never been very good at reading people (as Kisame liked to point out as one of her many flaws.) After a few minutes, the quiet of the field was anything but peaceful, causing the girl to fidget with her fingers. She sighed, an attempt to guage the boy's interest.

Sasuke looked up at her but said nothing. Suzume took another look around and seeing no one, decided to make her move. She leaned over, one arm on either side of his body, and kissed him. He went rigid, forcing her to pull away quickly, embarrassed to say the least. He gave her a hard glare.

If she had been one of his fangirls, she probably would have cried and apologized. Unfortunately for him, she wasn't like all of her other... ex-friends. She glared right back, harder and angrier by tenfold. She overcame the urge to punch him in the face. "What the hell is wrong with you!"

The normally stoic Uchiha was taken aback at first but he quickly rebounded. "I told you not to do that in public."

Suzume was stunned for a moment at what she called his idiocy. "So you have to look at me like that because I want to show my affection for you? Gee, you know how to treat a lady." She rolled her eyes sarcastically.

Sasuke gave her a tiny smirk. "I see no lady here, Iwate."

The lady froze, staring at him in disbelief. She smacked him upside the head, another dangerous move... that only made him laugh at her. "You're such a jerk!" she screeched, slapping at him again. "I hate you!"

Suddenly, to Suzume's great surprise, Sasuke grabbed her wrists, stopping her violent frenzy. His lips crashed against hers as he pulled her into him. She squeaked in surprise and jerked away from him, falling to her butt on the ground in front of him. Again, he just laughed at her. "Whatever you say, bird brain."

"Say that again! I dare you," she threatened, holding her fists up at him. "You know, you sound just like that big forehead idiot, Sakura. Maybe you're spending too much time with her... perhaps... because you like her?" Suzume smirked at him as his face contorted in disgust.

"Shut up. I don't even have time for that kind of thing. I have to train," he replied acidly.

"So you're saying that you don't have time to like anyone? Not even... me?"

Sasuke didn't reply to that but the Suzume didn't really mind the silence. She was back to being the girl who got on his nerves instead of the girl he hated, so anything was good enough for her. It's not like it really mattered whether or not he actually liked her. Not at all...

* * *

By the time Kakashi had decided to show up, Naruto had been writing a song about his favourite flavours of ramen, Sakura and Suzume had been about ready to claw each other's eyes out, and Sasuke had been sitting through it all with his eyes closed. It was safe to say that he was several hours late.

"Suzume, glad to see that you're joining us today and just in time," he greeted the brunette girl. It didn't seem to distract the three loud ninja from yelling at him for being late, as he probably had hoped it would. (His excuse was something lame like 'I got lost on the path of life'.)

"Just in time? About three hours too early apparently," she replied with a glare. Naruto and (even) Sakura backed her up with their own dirty stares. They were all ignored completely.  
Kakashi gave her a smile that looked fake to Suzume. Fake warmth. She knew that something was going to happen. "I look forward to seeing you in action again. You've been training, haven't you? Then you'll have to show us all just how far you've come."

The girl knew a moment of sudden fear when she heard him say those words. She was hoping that he wasn't about to make them spar again, especially if she was going to have to face Sasuke. "The rest of the team has been training too. I wonder if you can even keep up..." Kakashi looked at her from the corner of his eye.

If the words were meant to evoke a competitive spirit then they didn't work. She was shaking on the inside. "Umm... Anyway, what are we going to be doing today? Missions, training... sparring?" Suzume spoke the last word with a gulp, her fingers crossed.

"Actually, today we have a mission."

Naruto almost burst. "A cool one? A-Rank? S-Rank?" A huge, excited smile took over his face. Suzume wasn't too sure whether to be smiling with him or filling with dread. The look on the older man's face (or perhaps the lack of genuine emotion) confused her. She didn't know how to identify it.

"Actually, Naruto, it is an A-Rank mission," he said when Naruto finally closed his mouth. The blonde could barely control his wild grin. "Don't look so stupidly happy, Naruto. This is the time to be serious! This is a very dangerous mission; we can't afford for anything to go wrong!"

At Kakashi's rebuke, Naruto's grin faded to a thin line, but his eyes burned with determination. "So what are we going to be doing, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked, her jaw set with her mind on the mission. Even Sasuke seemed to be preparing himself mentally. Suzume almost didn't want to hear it. The thought of such a high ranked mission seemed way above her abilities; above all of their abilities (except Kakashi's, of course.)

"We've received word that there is an Akatsuki base stationed in a small town not far from Konoha." At the mention of Akatsuki, each of the genin stiffened. Suzume tightened her fists. "They've been supplying them with weapons and soldiers for years now while disguising themselves as the owners of a simple pawn shop. Our job is to first gather as much intel as we can on our own then capture this base and all of its inhabitants for questioning in Konoha. Understood?"

All four genin gave a curt nod in unison.

Kakashi eyed them all, pausing particularily long on Sasuke. "There's a small chance that we might run into the real members of Akatsuki. If this happens, you must run away and let me deal with them."

"But Kakashi-sensei-!" Naruto started.

"No, Naruto! If that were to happen, the mission would automatically become S-ranked and would be much too dangerous for genin. If you tried to fight, you would die. This goes for all of you: if you are going to do this mission, you must listen to me and follow each and every direction I give you. Failure to do so will not only jeapardize the mission but also your life and the lives of your comrades." He stared hard at each of them, again pausing a little longer on Sasuke. "Am I understood?"

"Yes!"

Kakashi took a moment to let their promise reverberate in their minds. "Okay then, we will meet at the South gates tomorrow at noon. Bring little but be prepared. Genin aren't usually sent on these missions but right now, we can't afford to put anyone else on them. Consider this to be the hardest mission you've ever done."

After giving a final nod, everyone was dismissed. However, as Suzume began to walk away, she heard Kakashi call to Sasuke. Pretending to leave, she quickly ducked behind a tree, listening.

Sasuke spoke first. "What is this about?"

Kakashi next. "I don't want it to be a mistake sending you on this mission, Sasuke."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

The older man sighed. "There's a tiny chance that, in the also tiny chance that the true Akatsuki members show up, Itachi will be there." She heard Sasuke make a quiet exhale when he heard the name. "If that is to happen, you will not, under any circumstances, attempt to fight him. You remember what I said. You have no leeway to be rash."

For a while, Sasuke said nothing but Suzume didn't need him to speak to know how he felt. She could practically hear him gritting his teeth; clenching his fists. Kakashi demanded a promise from him, his voice rising with authority. It was a whole other minute before Sasuke barked a "fine".

"Keep this in mind, Sasuke. I mean it."

Suzume heard someone approaching. A moment later, the young Uchiha was walking by her, hunched and shaking in anger. She grabbed his arm, only to be brushed off roughly with a heated glare. It said, 'leave me alone'.

She obeyed, letting him stalk off into the trees, though she couldn't help but feel for him. To be so close to his brother, and his revenge, yet not be able to try and take it... That must be the most frustrating feeling in the world. Yet, Suzume agreed with Kakashi: there was no way that Sasuke would win should he try to fight Itachi. She wasn't exactly sure that anyone could win against him.

Deciding that she would visit Sasuke once he had time to cool down, the girl was about to leave for home when she heard her name being called. "Suzume," called Kakashi. "I know you're there so you might as well come on out. It isn't polite to eavesdrop."

"Sorry," she told him, stepping out from the trees. "I didn't mean to; I was just waiting for Sasuke but it looks like he wants to be alone right now so..." She silenced herself. For some reason, she felt uncomfortable standing here alone with this man. It was even more uncomfortable than being alone with two Akatsuki memebers in the middle of the night. Sure, she trusted him with her life (afterall, he was her sensei... officially) but there was still something strange about this situation.

Maybe it was the fact that she could clearly see his face (or eye) in the light, or maybe it was his nonchalant gaze, or maybe the fact that he seemed to be somewhat suspicious of her. Then it hit her. He was suspicious... but about what? She wondered if he might, perhaps, know something about her little moonlit adventures to the training grounds. Could he know something about her whereabouts during the chuunin exams? If he knew something, then how much did he know?

She tried her best to keep her face straight but her mind and her heart were racing at the speed of light. It felt as if his stare was piercing her; searching and probing her; looking into her thoughts. He was almost as frightening of a man as Uchiha Itachi himself. Her palms grew sweaty in her gloves and she knew that he could see it.

"What's wrong, Suzume?" he asked her, feigning innocence. Or was he feigning? Perhaps he really didn't know anything and she was merely overthinking it. Or maybe that was what he wanted her to think.

"Nothing, why would you ask?" she replied, trying to clear her thoughts. She was beginning to grow a little light-headed. There were all these questions with no answers. She couldn't seem to draw any conclusions.

He took a few steps closer. "You seem like you're having a tough time with something. Are you feeling well?"

She quickly grasped her ticket out. She put a hand on her forehead. "I just have a bit of a headache. I guess this might just be a little too much excitement for me all at once. I did just start coming out again." She paused to look at him; he seemed to have taken the bait. "Don't worry, I'll be fine by tomorrow." She waved him off with a slightly shaky hand.

"Oh, I see. Well, then you should really take care of yourself." Again, he smiled at her, though this time seemed it seemed more natural. "You're going to have to be in top shape for this mission."

"Oh, yes," she replied awkwardly, "I'll try to rest up tonight then." Relieved that the conversation was brief, Suzume turned and began to walk back toward the village. She had definitely been overthinking things. There was no way that Kakashi could know anything; they had been playing everything safe.

As she neared the trees, the man called out to her again. "Oh, and Suzume?" She paused. "I really do want to see what you have learned on your travels. I think you owe us all that, right?"

Without turning, she gave a small nod. She walked on, knowing that she had just gotten herself into a very sticky situation.

* * *

**I expect a review from everyone who bugged me about updating. Really, I do.**

**Then maybe I'll update again? :O**


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

The walk to the village did not take long. Suzume would have enjoyed it if not for the questions zooming around her head, making it throb. She wasn't sure about what she was supposed to do on this mission: side with Konoha or side with Akatsuki. Itachi and Kakashi, her two teachers, had placed her in quite a predicament. She would have the play the game from all angles and see how things turned out. She would also have to be very lucky, something she hoped would come through for her as it had so many times in the past. If she were really lucky, perhaps the base would turn out to the only a pawn shop after all and they could go home without a single enemy encounter. The thought made her laugh on the inside.

What made her most uncomfortable about this mission was Kakashi's watchful eye. It had been more on her than on his dirty books ever since they left the gates of the village behind. He seemed suspicious and she was sure that he had ulterior motives for bringing her on this mission. Usually, he would take a team of fellow jounin or even chuunin with him, not some lowly genin. Still, Suzume couldn't believe that he had discovered her connection with Akatsuki; they had been so careful to prevent it.

Her red eyes looked over at the man as he lazily read his book, strolling along the dirt path without a care in the world. Around her walked Naruto and Sakura, with Sasuke bringing up the rear. It was probably better that way since the tension that radiated off of him was enough to give anybody a rash. Once, Sakura had tried to speak with him about the mission but he merely brushed her off with a glare. It even made Suzume feel bad for her though she understood what Sasuke was feeling, perhaps getting the chance to be so close to the man whom had taken everything from him and yet not being able to fight him. However, she doubted that Itachi would show up for something like this. The thought of another Akatsuki member showing up made her quiver a little with both fear and excitement to meet either her future mentor or future murderer.

The team's plan was simple. They would enter the village at different times with different personas and check into separate hotels. That way, if either of them were followed at any time, the connection between them would be minimal. This would also allow them to browse the pawn shop independently to see what they can find then compile the information. Those not in the shop at the time can be around the village, asking tentative questions and 'making friends' to help them discover whatever they could about the suspected base and about Akatsuki itself. All of them were also to be on the lookout for any black cloaks with red clouds on them, just in case. This would continue until Kakashi made a verdict on whether or not to remove them.

The team stopped a short distance away from the small village gates in order to disguise themselves and decide at which times they would be entering. "Listen to me," Kakashi commanded, silencing them all. "For now, I think you should move in pairs, though there may be a time when you must move independently. It will be safer this way for now though. I will move alone since I am more capable of defending myself against the more dangerous enemies we might find here." He paused a moment to let them take in the information. "The first pair will be Sasuke and Suzume. You will leave here as soon as I finish my instructions and head for the inn on the far side of town. It is by the wall of the village so you can't miss it. Naruto and Sakura, you will enter in 4 hours after they leave here and will enter the first inn you find. I will leave tomorrow morning and find my own place to stay. We will meet in 3 days at the first inn, using the utmost discretion. We cannot afford to be caught. Until then, do what you must to find information but by no means should any of us be in that store at the same time, excluding your partner. Understood?"

They all confirmed their understanding before the first pair disguised themselves. They could not use any jutsu to hide themselves or change their appearance since strong ninja may be able to detect this change. Therefore, they were forced to change their clothes and try to make themselves look as plain as possible. It was a difficult thing to make Sasuke and Naruto look normal since Naruto was just so recognizably bright and Sasuke was so recognizably dark. Suzume feared that they would be easily remembered or worse, that Sasuke would be known by his Uchiha name. She prayed that not having the clan crest on him might make him less Uchiha-like.

Then they were off. The gate of the village was wide open though there were guards posted on either side of it. They obviously were not meant for fighting off more than some bandits, looking like villagers themselves albeit with some armour and weapons. They didn't ask too much into it when Sasuke told them that they were simply visiting but rather warned them to keep their heads down. They passed through after that. The village itself was not as small as Suzume originally thought and was much more alive than expected. Along the streets were little shops and stands owned by villagers and traders. It seemed as though they got many tourists in the area since it was along the way to Konoha. Many were probably just passing through.

When they finally reached the inn that they were staying at, Suzume longed to go back onto the more busy street and take a look at the goods there. She had always liked to shop, especially for food, and she had seen quite a few delicious-looking things that she had never seen before. Her stomach growled with eagerness but she resisted and followed Sasuke into the small room he had gotten them. Inside the room was a round table with four cushions stacked next to it for sitting, two sleeping rolls on the floor, a single wooden drawer, and some paintings on the wall. It was simple, elegant, and meticulously clean. Something smelling of flowers calmed Suzume's mind as she stepped into the room.

"Suzume, sit. We have things to discuss." Sasuke was already at the table, another cushion layed out for her.

"What is it?" she asked while sitting down next to him.

"We need to get our stories straight. If we're travelling together, it'll look suspicious if we don't know a single thing about each other. Remember, we aren't ourselves on this mission but we can't just go making completely different people or we will never remember who we are supposed to be."

"Okay, so let's model ourselves after people we know then. It will be much easier if we pick a friend and use their information, preferably not a ninja friend though. My name is Minami Itsuko, I'm 14 and from Konoha. I know she's only 13 but I think it will be easier if we say we are older than we are. I have a mother and a father but no siblings. I'll probably channel her love of shopping too. That way, we have an excuse as to why I want to go to the pawn shop. I can just say that it looks interesting. I think that is all you need to know since you have already met Itsuko and know what she is like." It pained Suzume a little bit to use her ex-best friend as a cover for her mission but she could think of no one she knew (or thought she knew) better.

Sasuke nodded. "Then my name will be Fujimoto Toshiro. I'm guessing you know him; age 14, Konoha, two parents, older brother."

"Which means I'm your girlfriend," Suzume pointed out, almost smirking at him.

He smirked back. "I thought you already were."

* * *

The next day, the two of them left the inn for lunch. The night before had been full of strategizing and planning the next few days until the meeting with the others. It was boring work but both of them deemed it necessary in order to discover as much as they could before that time. They never said it out loud but it was almost as if they had been thrown into a competition to come up with more information than Naruto and Sakura before meeting with Kakashi. Perhaps it would prove that they were smarter than them, or more determined. Suzume didn't know. She just knew that for whatever reason, she wanted to 'win'.

Sasuke led her into a random restaurant not far from the pawn shop in question. This would give them the opportunity to shop around the area. They took a seat by the window so that they could watch the people walking by on the street and take note of anybody suspicious.

Suzume looked at Sasuke as he stared out the window. His sharp features were fixed in concentration. She could practically see how fast his mind was working. The longer she watched him, however, the more she began to think about the consequences this mission could have for her, dealing with both Akatsuki and Konoha simultaneously. She did not want to begin thinking about that. "Toshi-kun," she cooed softly, remembering to use his new name. He looked up at her, almost surprised. "Relax a little. We're here to have fun, right?" As she said this, she touched his arm soothingly.

"R-right..." he muttered, his cheeks turning slightly pink. He forced his gaze from the window and to Suzume's surprise, began talking about life in Konoha.

As they ate, they talked about a number of topics, none of which had to do with ninja affairs. In fact, many of the things they talked about were rumours that they had heard or things that they wanted to do for the next few days. It stunned Suzume on how much of the village gossip Sasuke had picked up when he was supposedly engrossed in his own business. It annoyed her a bit when they ventured onto the topic of Suzume being a lesbian, discussing it as if they barely knew her. Still, the fact that she was able to have such a normal conversation with the Uchiha was amazing. It made her look at him in a new light.

She leaned forward. "So you can be nice if you want to," she whispered.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"I wish you would talk with me more... I am your team mate and yet I know absolutely nothing about you. How can I be your friend if I don't even know about the little things in your life, let alone the big things?" Suzume's red eyes stared into his, leaving behind the personalities they had just adopted. "I want to be close to you, Sasuke. I... I..." She choked on her words.

"Don't bother. I don't have time for making friends." His eyes were cold and his voice, colder. "Just leave it alone and we won't have a problem."

"I don't get you," she whispered furiously. "One minute, you seem to like me and then the next minute, you seem like you hate me. Which one is it?" There was a long silence. Too long. Neither of the two said a word. Sasuke merely sipped his tea with his eyes closed, obviously with no intention of answering her.

They didn't speak again before they left, browsing the local shops in silence though she pretended to point something out to him every once in a while. Eventually, they came to the pawn shop and ventured inside. Suzume tried to release the anger that she had been letting brew in her head since lunch, attempting to focus solely on the mission. If she couldn't do that then their cover might be blown and Akatsuki might decide to eliminate them.

The shop was quite large for a pawn shop though it was still full of items to buy. The range of the items available was so vast that Suzume was sure that someone could spend a lifetime in there, looking through everything they had. Some things were quite cheap while others were very expensive. She tried hard to analyze everything she could as she looked around, particularly when around high priced items. It was hard to ignore the man sitting behind the counter. She watched him the most. He had bulging black eyes that followed the customers and long, brown hair that gave him an extra touch of menace. He looked like your typical bandit. Even his brown clothing seemed as though it had been worn in some sort of fight, with many places to hide weapons in it. Just by his look, she could tell that there was more to this place than it seemed.

Suzume let out an uncharacteristic squeal of excitement as she looked over the jewelry, calling Sasuke over. As they pretended to admire the jewels, they caught each other's eye. There was an awkward hesitation before Sasuke grabbed her hand, pointing her finger for her. She looked at him with confusion as he stepped behind her, chin on her shoulder, his other arm wrapped around her waist. She shivered when she felt his breath on her ear. "Which one do you want?" he asked her. "This one?" He pointed her finger at a bracelet. "This one?" A necklace. "Or maybe, this one?" He pointed her finger at a ring. The man behind the counter sneered with disgust and finally turned his gaze away. Nobody wanted to see teenagers doing lovey-dovey things in their shop. She had no idea what Sasuke was thinking but Suzume knew that he needed to stop and soon. Her knees were getting weak.

"Toshi-kun," she drawled in a whining voice. "Stop kidding around!" She sincerely hoped Sasuke would get the message.

"What? Are you above all that?" His hand twitched her finger upward, pointing past the ring for a moment before pulling her hand down. She stared at the spot her pointed at, above the jewelry case. At first, she saw nothing out of the ordinary, just a shelf of books against the wall along with several paintings and photo frames. On the ground there were several colourful rugs layed out side by side. It was staring at the rugs that made her notice a small indent in the fabric beside the bookcase, as if something heavy (such as the bookcase) had once stood there for quite some time but what recently moved. Why would somebody move a bookcase half an inch to the right for no apparent reason? It was suspicious indeed.

Suzume let out a laugh that she hoped didn't sound too fake. "Do you even have the money for that sort of thing?"

"We can come back tomorrow and I will." He turned her around, placing his hands on her waist. Come back tomorrow, his eyes told her.

"Yeah, we'll see about that," she joked, taking his hand and leading him out of the store. They walked hand in hand back to the inn.

* * *

They did not return the next day but rather the day after under the pretence of deciding which bit of jewelry to get. However, this time when they went back, the indent that had been in the carpet was covered by the shelf once more. That led the two ninja to conclude that the shelf must have been moved for a reason since it didn't seem likely that the store owner was trying to make the place look better. After that conclusion, they tried their hand at guessing but with no other evidence, decided to wait until that night when the others in the team came for the meeting.

Suzume leaned on the window frame, looking out into the night sky. The tea in her hand helped to calm her mind but could not erase the questions gnawing on her. What was she to do if they discovered enough information to capture this Akatsuki base? Was she supposed to stop them from getting there or was she supposed to play along and help Konoha succeed? Would Itachi be angry with her if she acted on her own? She desperately wished to see him. Without realizing it, the girl had come to rely on his guidance and authority on a much deeper level than anyone else's. She trusted him more than she trusted Kakashi. Her head throbbed with too many thoughts.

She knew that Sasuke was watching her so she didn't turn around. The past couple days had been uneasy since the conversation they had had in the restaurant. The only reason they had spoken had been because of the mission. If not for that, the days would be completely silent. Suzume wished that she could have been paired up with Naruto instead. "It would have been better," she breathed into the outside air, not loud enough for the Uchiha to hear her.

Or so she thought. "What would have been better?" His voice was soft again, like the time she stayed in his house after the destruction of Konoha. At that time, it was like a balm to her wounds but now it just made her head throb more. She grew tired.

"If I were partnered up with Naruto," she replied quietly, turning her reddish eyes to his face.

He stared at her for a moment with his typical blank expression before sighing and closing his eyes, tilting his head up to the ceiling. Her head throbbed again as she was reminded of Itachi. "You should have said something to Kakashi then, if you thought it would be so much better." The gentleness in his voice had gone, replaced with bitterness, anger, and a hint of malice. "In fact, you should ask him to see if there is some way you can switch." Though he kept his tone low and even, she could still feel the strength of his emotions emanating through it.

"You know we can't switch now. That guy will remember us." It was an insensitive reply but she didn't feel like dealing with his mood swings at that moment.

"Why do you want to be partnered up with him, anyway? Why would it be better?"

"Naruto is my good friend plus, he's lots of fun to be with."

Sasuke couldn't help but glare at her. "So just go with him then! Go have fun with your _good friend, Naruto_. Are you sure that's all he's thinking about? Are you sure that he doesn't think it's something more than friends?"

Suzume rounded on him. "Does it matter if it is anything more than friends?"

"Is it?" he demanded, rising from his seat to be level with her.

She didn't answer for a while, letting the tension swallow the entire room. On one hand, Suzume was angry with Sasuke for reacting this way when he was the one who had made it almost unbearable to be in the same room for too long, but on the other hand, the childish way he was reacting to her preference of having Naruto as a partner was amusing and in some sick way, it pleased her. She stared hard into his onyx eyes, still not speaking. She wondered what he would think if she said nothing at all.

"I don't have time for this," he spat, turning on his heel toward the door.

"Where are you going?"

"To go search for more information." He tried to leave again but Suzume grabbed his arm, holding him back.

"You can't leave me here!" she protested.

"Don't worry, your boyfriend will be here soon."

"Sasuke, wait a minute!" Suzume ripped him from the door and forced him to look at her. "We're only friends. I don't like him in that way... I like someone else..." Her voice trailed off as she averted her eyes, slipping a strand of her brown hair behind her ear.

"Someone... else?"

"Do I have to say everything out loud!" In a sudden burst of fury, Suzume pushed the boy away from her and whipped back to the window, breathing heavily. It was hard to calm herself down. This boy was just so thickheaded. She didn't think that she would have to explain everything to him, especially after all those times when she had hugged him or kissed him. How could he not know that she liked him? "You're so stupid."

Suddenly, Sasuke's arms were around her. "I'm new to this." He turned her around as gently as he could before pulling her close again. There was a longing in his embrace that she had sensed before. It drew her in, comforted her, and cleared every thought from her head. How he could have this effect on her, she didn't know. She didn't care. She just hugged him back. It felt like an eternity.

"Are we interrupting something?" said a cool voice from the other window. Immediately, the two jumped away from each other, cheeks bright pink. Kakashi jumped down from the window sill, following by Naruto then Sakura. The latter two apparently hadn't seen anything. Suzume thanked the gods that Sakura had been the last one in or else she would never give them another moment of peace. They swiftly settled themselves around the circle table, trying to get back to business, hoping to forget that embarrassing scene they had just caused. Kakashi was kind enough not to mention anything further, instead beginning to discuss the mission. "So, we have had 3 days. Has anyone found anything useful yet?"

"Actually, yes!" Suzume was the first to speak though Naruto seemed as though he was about to start shouting. He closed his mouth in disappointment. "Sasuke discovered something the first time we went to the shop. The bookcase behind the jewelery cases seems to have been moved more than once about a half inch to the right and then back again. It may not seem like much but we have some suspicions that it could mean something hidden behind there. Sure, it could only be a safe or something unrelated to Akatsuki but I think it is something worth looking into." Sasuke glanced at her from the corner of his eye, a small thanks for giving him the credit for the find.

Kakashi seemed to consider her words carefully, nodding the whole time she talked. "Very good. I noticed that too actually but wasn't able to confirm it since I only saw it once. But it looks as though you have caught it too and on a separate occasion than I did. It's definitely worth looking into. Good job, Sasuke, Suzume."

Naruto looked as though he were about to burst. "Sakura and I saw some guys go into the store at night time and when we tried to go too, it was closed and there was nobody in there!"

Kakashi's face looked concentrated. "Well then, we have a single roomed store without any visible stairs, an owner who seems to also be a seasoned fighter, a moving bookcase, and disappearing people. I would definitely say that the tips were good ones and that this is an Akatsuki base. Good work, Naruto and Sakura." Naruto beamed with delight on having fit in a piece of the puzzle. "Now, I've discovered a few things myself by watching the man who owns the store. His name is Yakazawa Yukio, among his other names. I've heard rumours that he is a former bandit who suddenly decided to take up honest work though most of the items in his store are probably stolen. We can only assume that he is up to something dirty."

"Then what do we do, sensei?" Sakura asked, her keen eyes shining with adventure. Every one of the genin grew with excitement, knowing well what would come to pass after Kakashi passed judgement on the pawn shop. Suzume was surprised by her eagerness for some action.

"We get in."

* * *

Suzume crouched in a small alley near to the pawn shop, waiting for the signal. Across the street from her, she could just make out Naruto pressed up against a stone wall. Kakashi and Sasuke had gone ahead while Sakura waited on the rooftop. Again, the plan was simple. Kakashi and Sasuke would sneak into the pawn shop while the other three kept watch. If they saw anybody heading into the shop, they would take them out as quickly and as quietly as they possibly could. When the first two were able to get in, Naruto and Suzume would be moved into the shop while Sakura guards the outside and captures anybody who tries to escape. From there, they would attempt to capture as many as they can. Those who couldn't be captured were to be killed.

The girl breathed deeply to keep herself calm. She was determined to have a battle in which her cowardice did not show, where she could fight alongside her friends proudly. This time, she was ready. The signal came.

Moving silently in the darkness, both Suzume and Naruto made their way into the shop, careful not to touch anything other than the solid ground. Maneuvuring around the crowded room in the dark was tricky but manageable. Inside, Kakashi and Sasuke waited for them with the bookcase pushed to the side, revealing a single door. The oldest ninja made a 'shushing' gesture with his finger while gingerly opening the door. They must have already determined that there were no traps around the door. Inside the door was a dimly lit staircase leading down to a basement. They travelled down with their sensei in the lead, looking for traps and attempting to sense the presence of enemies.

The staircase led to a hall which led to a room. They didn't enter, hearing somebody speaking. "That Kakuzu is a madman, I say. Always wants to get his money's worth but I swear he is cheaping out on us!" There was the scraping of a chair on the floor. "If it weren't for him, we could have made loads more off of the last order... If only those damn Akatsuki weren't so damn freaky!" The laughter of another man resounded in the room. "Yeah, yeah. Laugh if you want to but you're not the one who has to deal with them. You just sit in that shop up there and stare at stuff all day."

"Hey, I'd rather be in on the action than sitting in that room. You wouldn't believe how annoying it is to watch people stare at stuff then leave without buying anything!"

"We should switch then. I hate dealing with these people sometimes. Sure, they pay good money most of the time but they also look like they're going to kill you at any second. It's hard enough to keep my wits around them, let alone try to bargain a better price." Another chair scrape. Suzume looked to Kakashi with anticipation. As soon as he moved, it would be time to throw themselves into battle.

A door somewhere opened. "Will you guys both stop your complaining?"

"Ah, shut up!" More and more people were revealing themselves. Just how many people were in this operation, Suzume wondered. More than just a few, apparently. This would take longer than she had expected.

Another five minutes passed before one of the men suggested that they have a 'well-earned' drink. They all shouted their agreements. Then someone came toward the place where they were hidden. All of them crouched a little lower and close to the wall except for Kakashi, who stood straight up against the wall, waiting for the man to walk by. The first capture was silent and within seconds, the prisoner was unconscious and bound. Naruto brought him back up the stairs where Sakura would act as the jailer. The other men didn't seem to notice their friend's disappearing footsteps over the sound of their own voices.

Then the genjutsu started. Many of the men became dumbstruck as if in a waking dream while a few became suddenly alert, shouting about intruders. They jumped into action. Kakashi and Sasuke attacked those who remained with their wits while Suzume captured those still caught in Kakashi's trap. The task itself wasn't difficult but there were more men than she thought, coming out of several doors around the area. She jumped over a desk, hiding underneath it while trying to form a plan. She was sure that they could win this fight but not sure that they could do it if she didn't reveal another one of her advanced techniques. She really didn't want to have to do that.

She jumped out from behind the desk just in time to hit the neck of a man attacking Sasuke, knocking him out right before he reached his target. Weapons were flying yet no one used many ninjutsu since the room was not big enough and they would surely hit their comrades. A half dozen Naruto clones also filled the room. It had to be a taijutsu battle. Then Suzume had an idea. She looked to the several doors leading out of the room and ventured into one. It was a small room full of boxes. The next one was similar to the last. Finally, after several searched rooms, she found what she had been looking for: a proper sword. Pulling a random one off the wall, she charged back into the room with her new weapon.

It seemed as though none could withstand her might. Her speed and her strength had grown so much in the time that she had spent training with Haku and Zabuza, and even moreso during the time she trained with Itachi. Everyone fell to her sword. She fell back-to-back with Sasuke and Naruto who looked incredulously at her but said nothing. There was more work to be done. It was as if a spirit has taken over her body and mind; the unfamiliar rush of battle igniting her senses and awakening a new kind of pleasure. It was madness. It all happened so fast. What must have been an hour seemed like only minutes.

Then there was a crash.

"Are we having a problem here, boys?" called a rough voice, laughing as the smoke the man blew from the wall obscured everyone's vision.

As the smoke cleared, Sasuke growled. "Itachi..." Standing by the hole that had been blasted into the wall stood Itachi and Kisame. Samehada was thrown on top of Kisame's shoulder carelessly as he laughed.

Kakashi reacted first. "Sasuke, Suzume, Naruto, leave!" he shouted, turning to face the two S-ranked ninja while the others in the room backed away, not wanting to get caught up in a fight of this level. As Suzume turned to go, she noticed Sasuke stiffen and bristle as he looked into the eyes of his family's murderer. "Sasuke!" Kakashi barked again but still, the boy did not move. Itachi did nothing but stare at his younger brother, eyes dead and face straight, as if he felt absolutely nothing.

"Sasuke, you idiot! Get a move on!" Naruto was already by the door.

"Come on, Sasuke." Suzume grabbed onto his arm in an attempt to uproot him from his spot but he merely pushed her away from him. She latched onto him again, pulling on him harder than before. "Sasuke, seriously! Kakashi said-"

"I know what he said. Get the fuck away from me!" He shoved her away with such force that she crashed into the wall nearby, cracking it on impact. The breath left her lungs as she slumped to the floor, barely hearing Kakashi and Naruto shout and Kisame taunt them. Sasuke stayed where he was, unaffected by anything that anyone said or did. His glare was colder than she had ever seen it. He didn't take his eyes off Itachi for even a second, not even to check if she was alright.

Suzume forced herself back onto her legs. the only reason it had hurt so much was because she hadn't had the opportunity to brace herself. She hadn't expected him to attack her like that. When at last she regained her balance, she looked hard at the young Uchiha boy. "Are you really going to try and fight him?"

"Of course he isn't," said Kakashi, standing in between the two Uchiha.

"Like hell I won't!" snarled Sasuke, rushing past his sensei toward his brother. Then Kisame jumped into the fray, slashing at the silver-haired man with a fury that Suzume knew all too well. Naruto jumped in to try to call Sasuke off of Itachi. She stood to the side like the others in the room, not knowing what to do or who to help. She could only watch as Itachi toyed with Sasuke and Kisame howled with a wild laughter every time he managed a hit on Kakashi.

The world came to a standstill for a minute. The whole room stopped breathing and yet, Suzume felt a calm pass over her. This was familiar: Itachi behind her, holding her against him, kunai to her throat. This was how all of their training sessions ended since there was never a time when she bested him. "Sasuke, leave now or your friend dies here." His request didn't make any sense to Suzume. Why would he be trying to get Sasuke to leave? The boy stood stalk-still, his venomous eyes looking to kill. There was a pregnant pause. It took her a few moments to realize it but when she did, she was horrified: Sasuke might actually sacrifice her for the chance to defeat his brother.

Kakashi seemed almost panicked. "Sasuke, do as he says and leave. Now! This is no longer a matter between the two of you; Suzume is going to die if you stay here!"

"Sasuke, you bastard! Hurry up!"

Suzume's sense of calm was disrupted by the young boy's unwillingness to leave. She didn't really think that Itachi would kill her but it was disturbing to know that Sasuke would be willing to let it happen, after all that had been said and done. She looked into his eyes and saw him at war with himself. His jaw was clenched tightly and his teeth were bared, giving him an almost feral appearance. His words almost made her heart stop. "I'm not going anywhere."

And then her world went black.

* * *

When Suzume awoke, her whole body burned. It felt as though she had been stabbed one hundred time over in every single inch of her skin. She could do nothing but lie perfectly still in the hopes that the pain would go away. She lost track of time staring at the rocky ceiling. She could remember what had happened before she had passed out but she couldn't remember why she did in the first place. She didn't want to think about it much. The memory made tears come to her eyes; Sasuke let her die.

"Don't cry now," said a deep voice. Managing to turn her head to the side, she identified the voice as Itachi. He was sitting against a wall not far away from her, staring into her red eyes over a small fire. It looked as though he had been there a while. Kisame was nowhere to be seen.

"What happened?"

"I killed you." Suzume blinked at him. That made absolutely no sense in her brain. She thought at first that perhaps her brain was still fuzzy from fainting but after a few minutes, she knew that it couldn't be so. He shook his head at her as if telling her not to think too hard. "I faked your death in front of your team."

"Oh... but why?" Nothing was making sense to her now.

Itachi sighed. "From now on, you will train only under me and any other Akatsuki member I order you to. With Konoha believing you dead, you can move freely through most of the land with the exception of Konoha itself since you are not well known even within the village. Also, that display served another purpose." He let her take in the information and when she looked ready he continued. "I needed to show you that being involved with my brother right now is not an option. At the moment, he is preoccupied with finding the power to defeat me and he will stop at nothing to obtain it. There are many things that you do not yet know about him. In time, after you have discovered them and learned who he truly is, you can decide for yourself whether you would like to be with him or not."

Suzume watched him for some time after, not bothering to hide it this time. His dark eyes seemed different than they had before. There was something almost... sad deep within them. It made her uncomfortable that she had found an opening into his feelings, his soul. It made him seem weaker, if only a little bit. She turned her head back to the ceiling. "He'll never stop searching for that power. I don't think he will ever find it."

"He will. And when I am gone, maybe you can get him to stop, if you choose to." She chanced a glance at him to see him standing up, now towering over her. "That's enough conversation for now. You need to recover and quickly for we have work to do and not much time to do it. I will make you strong. I will make you strong enough for what you will have to face in the future." Without another word, he strode out of the room.

Suzume watched him walk away, not understand what he was saying, not knowing what it was that she would have to face, not knowing who she was supposed to become.

None of that mattered. Itachi said so. That was the bottom line. He was her absolute, her authority, her _everything_. She would learn everything he had to teach her, follow every order he gave her, and become whoever he shaped her to be. Everything and everyone else could wait, would have to wait. In her mind, Suzume made a resolution, a promise, to trust in him completely. It was all she had left.

She would be ready.

* * *

**Reviews would be nice guys, even if this is long overdue and an extremely long chapter. Then I will get working on the Shippuden stuff. Do you want it? ;P**


	14. Chapter 14

Hi everyone!

I'm not sure if you checked my profile but I left a message there for you. Yes, I've been reading any reviews and I notice when you follow me or this story. I'm sorry that I haven't been very active but I've been very busy with my studies.

Anyway, the message: I'll be heavily revising the Sparrow and replacing the chapters as I go along. I'll fix any inconsistencies, of which there are many, while also just generally improving the writing. Hopefully, it'll make a better read for you! It shouldn't take too long and I've already fixed the first chapter. The new chapter will be posted after I've finished all the editing so please be patient for just a little longer.

Thank you so much for the support. Remember to review or send me messages; I love reading them!

- xTerriblexIsxBeautifulx


End file.
